| English Dictionary |
STALE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does stale mean?
• STALE (adjective)
The adjective STALE has 2 senses:
1. lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age
2. lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new
Familiarity information: STALE used as an adjective is rare.
• STALE (verb)
The verb STALE has 1 sense:
1. urinate, of cattle and horses
Familiarity information: STALE used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: stalest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age
Context example:
the beer was stale
Similar:
addled ((of eggs) no longer edible)
bad; spoiled; spoilt ((of foodstuffs) not in an edible or usable condition)
cold (having lost freshness through passage of time)
day-old (not fresh today)
hard (dried out)
flyblown; maggoty (spoiled and covered with eggs and larvae of flies)
moldy; mouldy; musty (covered with or smelling of mold)
rancid ((used of decomposing oils or fats) having a rank smell or taste usually due to a chemical change or decomposition)
rotten (having decayed or disintegrated; usually implies foulness)
corrupt; tainted (touched by rot or decay)
putrid (in an advanced state of decomposition and having a foul odor)
putrescent (becoming putrid)
Also:
old (of long duration; not new)
unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)
Attribute:
staleness (having lost purity and freshness as a consequence of aging)
Antonym:
fresh (recently made, produced, or harvested)
Derivation:
staleness (having lost purity and freshness as a consequence of aging)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new
Synonyms:
cold; dusty; moth-eaten; stale
Context example:
stale news
Similar:
unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)
Derivation:
staleness (unoriginality as a result of being dull and hackneyed)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it stales Past simple: staled
Past participle: staled
-ing form: staling
Sense 1
Meaning:
Urinate, of cattle and horses
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "stale" is one way to...):
make; make water; micturate; pass water; pee; pee-pee; piddle; piss; puddle; relieve oneself; spend a penny; take a leak; urinate; wee; wee-wee (eliminate urine)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Context examples
There are the stale vegetables now.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
If he isn’t absolutely stale, Tregellis, he is your best chance.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The attachment of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax became commonplace, threadbare, stale in the comparison, exciting no surprize, presenting no disparity, affording nothing to be said or thought.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
“Somehow Tommy’s grub always tastes of grease, stale grease, and I reckon he ain’t changed his shirt since he left ’Frisco.”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
A cigarette glowed amid the tangle of white hair, and the air of the room was fetid with stale tobacco smoke.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She spoke briskly, but in her secret soul she wished she had said nothing about Tuesday, for her interest like her cake was getting a little stale.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The post in the center, some nine feet long, was sharpened at the upper end, and was black with the stale blood of the creatures who had been impaled upon it.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It had a cock near the bottom to let out the water, when it began to grow stale; and two servants could easily fill it in half an hour.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I never shall forget the waking, next morning; the being cheerful and fresh for the first moment, and then the being weighed down by the stale and dismal oppression of remembrance.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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