What is "stay rod"

Stay \Stay\, n. [Cf. OF. estai, F. ['e]tai support, and E. stay a rope to support a mast.]

1. That which serves as a prop; a support. ``My only strength and stay.''
   --Milton.

   Trees serve as so many stays for their vines.
   --Addison.

   Lord Liverpool is the single stay of this ministry.
   --Coleridge.

2. pl. A corset stiffened with whalebone or other material, worn by women, and rarely by men.

   How the strait stays the slender waist constrain.
   --Gay.

3. Continuance in a place; abode for a space of time; sojourn; as, you make a short stay in this city.

   Make haste, and leave thy business and thy care; No mortal interest can be worth thy stay.
   --Dryden.

   Embrace the hero and his stay implore.
   --Waller.

4. Cessation of motion or progression; stand; stop.

   Made of sphere metal, never to decay Until his revolution was at stay.
   --Milton.

   Affairs of state seemed rather to stand at a stay.
   --Hayward.

5. Hindrance; let; check. [Obs.]

   They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false.
   --Robynson (More's Utopia).

6. Restraint of passion; moderation; caution; steadiness; sobriety. [Obs.] ``Not grudging that thy lust hath bounds and stays.''
   --Herbert.

   The wisdom, stay, and moderation of the king.
   --Bacon.

   With prudent stay he long deferred The rough contention.
   --Philips.

7. (Engin.) Strictly, a part in tension to hold the parts together, or stiffen them.

   Stay bolt (Mech.), a bolt or short rod, connecting opposite plates, so as to prevent them from being bulged out when acted upon by a pressure which tends to force them apart, as in the leg of a steam boiler.

   Stay busk, a stiff piece of wood, steel, or whalebone, for the front support of a woman's stays. Cf. Busk.

   Stay rod, a rod which acts as a stay, particularly in a steam boiler.