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stead
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
stead
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
good
▪ These shoes had stood him in good stead.
▪ Insomnia would stand him in good stead in this expanse of knee-high cover.
▪ However, it is one that, if you take the trouble to learn properly, will stand you in good stead.
▪ Those contacts, he says, still serve him in good stead today.
▪ As I developed I became a big bloke and that stood me in good stead.
▪ This habit of work, which is by now natural to me, has stood me in good stead.
▪ It is not the only time my profound knowledge of football has stood me in good stead.
▪ It stood them in good stead again in 1976 when drought caused many villages to be supplied with stand pipes.
■ VERB
serve
▪ Those contacts, he says, still serve him in good stead today.
▪ But her beloved circus may have served her in better stead than regular outings to, say, the ballet.
▪ The class would later serve Amelia in good stead, giving her her first practical knowledge of how engines worked.
stand
▪ These shoes had stood him in good stead.
▪ This habit of work, which is by now natural to me, has stood me in good stead.
▪ I've experienced more now, and it's going to stand me in good stead.
▪ A man-made clock would certainly prove a useful accessory to astronomical reckoning but could never stand in its stead.
▪ Now we had moved on to bigger and better things, this predictability still stood us in good stead.
▪ The change in the secretary general is likely to stand her in good stead with committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.
▪ James had armed himself with the sword of Robert the Bruce, but it stood him in poor stead.
▪ Her impartiality stood me in good stead.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A man-made clock would certainly prove a useful accessory to astronomical reckoning but could never stand in its stead.
▪ If some one would die in Admetus' stead, he could live.
▪ If you develop good habits they will stand you in good stead in your business and managerial career.
▪ The 356 series was about to die and in its stead was coming the 911.
▪ The change in the secretary general is likely to stand her in good stead with committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.
▪ These shoes had stood him in good stead.
▪ They have stood the Royal Navy in good stead.
▪ Those contacts, he says, still serve him in good stead today.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stead

Stead \Stead\, v. t.

  1. To help; to support; to benefit; to assist.

    Perhaps my succour or advisement meet, Mote stead you much your purpose to subdue.
    --Spenser.

    It nothing steads us To chide him from our eaves.
    --Shak.

  2. To fill the place of. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

Stead

Stead \Stead\ (st[e^]d), n. [OE. stede place, AS. stede; akin to LG. & D. stede, OS. stad, stedi, OHG. stat, G. statt, st["a]tte, Icel. sta[eth]r, Dan. sted, Sw. stad, Goth. sta[thorn]s, and E. stand. [root]163. See Stand, and cf. Staith, Stithy.]

  1. Place, or spot, in general. [Obs., except in composition.]
    --Chaucer.

    Fly, therefore, fly this fearful stead anon.
    --Spenser.

  2. Place or room which another had, has, or might have. ``Stewards of your steads.''
    --Piers Plowman.

    In stead of bounds, he a pillar set.
    --Chaucer.

  3. A frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. [R.]

    The genial bed, Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.
    --Dryden.

  4. A farmhouse and offices. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

    Note: The word is now commonly used as the last part of a compound; as, farmstead, homestead, roadstead, etc.

    In stead of, in place of. See Instead.

    To stand in stead, or To do stead, to be of use or great advantage.

    The smallest act . . . shall stand us in great stead.
    --Atterbury.

    Here thy sword can do thee little stead.
    --Milton.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
stead

Old English stede "place, position; standing, firmness, stability, fixity," from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (cognates: Old Saxon stedi, Old Norse staðr "place, spot; stop, pause; town," Swedish stad, Dutch stede "place," Old High German stat, German Stadt "town," Gothic staþs "place"), from PIE *steti-, suffixed form of root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Related to stand.\n

\nNow chiefly in compounds or phrases. Meaning "assistance, use, benefit, advantage" is from c.1300. Meaning "frame on which a bed is laid" is from c.1400. The German use of Stadt for "town, city" "is a late development from c.1200 when the term began to replace Burg" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names]. The Steads was 16c. English for "the Hanseatic cities."

Wiktionary
stead

n. 1 (label en obsolete) A place, or spot, in general. {{defdate|10th-(C.: 16)}} 2 (label en obsolete) A place where a person normally rests; a seat. (10th-18thc.) 3 (label en obsolete) A specific place or point on a body or other surface. (11th-15thc.) 4 (label en obsolete) An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc. (13th-16thc.) 5 (label en obsolete) An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm. (14th-19thc.) 6 (label en obsolete) The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. (15th-19thc.) 7 (label en in phrases now literary) The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor. (from 15thc.) 8 Figuratively, an emotional or circumstantial "place" having specified advantages, qualities etc. (now only in phrases). (from 15thc.) vb. 1 To help; to support; to benefit; to assist. 2 To fill place of.

Related phrases:
WordNet
stead

n. the function or position properly or customarily occupied or served by another; "can you go in my stead?"; "took his place"; "in lieu of" [syn: position, place, lieu]

Wikipedia
Stead

Stead (pronounced 'sted' as in "instead") is an English surname, and may refer to

Usage examples of "stead".

I got down at the inn, I found that the canoness was at Manheim, while in her stead I encountered an actress named Toscani, who was going to Stuttgart with her young and pretty daughter.

In its stead was something at which the children, more awed still, crept out of the room.

One day, in the month of August it was, I had gone on some private concernment of my own to Kilmarnock, and Mr Booble, who was then oldest Bailie, naturally officiated as chief magistrate in my stead.

Being, at the same time, in funds, and able to satisfy his taste as a virtuoso, he felt the need of and bought a violin for ten dollars, but, Fox urging upon him the desirability of getting a good one while he was about it, was finally persuaded to purchase the Bott violin for twenty dollars in its stead.

Had the chiasmatic transformers not ravaged all the wombs that Mother Nature had provided, what other kinds of transformers might have been sent forth in their stead?

David was hunting in the hills with Courant, Zavier driving in his stead.

While his majesty was thus discoursing with Jones, a sudden uproar arose in the barn, and as it seems upon this occasion:- the courtesy of these people had by degrees removed all the apprehensions of Partridge, and he was prevailed upon not only to stuff himself with their food, but to taste some of their liquors, which by degress entirely expelled all fear from his composition, and in its stead introduced much more agreeable sensations.

I said I did not feel inclined for another interview with such a man, and he agreed to present my thanks and excuses in my stead.

Pyret, headed by Majer Dysar, and directly after what passed for breakfast, Alucius was in the front room of the small stead house which had become a headquarters of sorts.

Lawrence himself had received no orders to search me, and this circumstance might have stood him in good stead if I had succeeded in escaping, as all prisoners handed over to him by the captain of the guard were supposed to have been searched already.

If destiny had given me an honest man in his stead, I would have forsaken him long ago, for sooner or later he will be the death of me.

You look again at the man, you examine him a second time, and you find that, in order to give him a heavenly voice, he has been deprived of that which constitutes a man, and you are compelled to acknowledge that a spontaneous feeling has stood the woman in good stead.

Serge or Lazar, or both, to keep her company in his stead, while he rode with Vasili and the guards outside.

On the other hand, a religion of the book almost by definition promoted literacy and a respect for scholarship that stood them in good stead.

Round about fast by the walles of the Orchyard there were set conuenyent garden pots in the which in stead of growing plantes, euerie one was of pure glasse, exceeding a mans imagination or beleefe, intorpiaried boxe the rootes and stalkes of golde, whereout the other proceeded.