Whether he abstain men from marrying. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not a few abstained from voting. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To refrain; forbear; withhold; deny one's self; give up; relinquish. [ 1913 Webster ]

A backstairs influence. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Female caprice and backstair influence. Trevelyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ She ] hath . . . distained her honorable blood. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

The worthiness of praise distains his worth. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Sober; grave; steady; steadfast; composed; regular; sedate. [ 1913 Webster ]

If sometimes he appears too gay, yet a secret gracefulness of youth accompanies his writings, though the staidness and sobriety of age be wanting. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Sobriety; gravity; steadiness; regularity; constancy; firmness; stability; sedateness. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To color, as wood, glass, paper, cloth, or the like, by processes affecting, chemically or otherwise, the material itself; to tinge with a color or colors combining with, or penetrating, the substance; to dye; as, to stain wood with acids, colored washes, paint rubbed in, etc.; to stain glass. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To spot with guilt or infamy; to bring reproach on; to blot; to soil; to tarnish. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of honor void,
Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. [ 1913 Webster ]

She stains the ripest virgins of her age. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

That did all other beasts in beauty stain. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, -- often used for making ornamental windows. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To paint; dye; blot; soil; sully; discolor; disgrace; taint. -- Paint, Stain, Dye. These denote three different processes; the first mechanical, the other two, chiefly chemical. To paint a thing is to spread a coat of coloring matter over it; to stain or dye a thing is to impart color to its substance. To stain is said chiefly of solids, as wood, glass, paper; to dye, of fibrous substances, textile fabrics, etc.; the one, commonly, a simple process, as applying a wash; the other more complex, as fixing colors by mordants. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A natural spot of a color different from the gound. [ 1913 Webster ]

Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our opinion . . . is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of heresy. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Cause of reproach; shame. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A tincture; a tinge. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

You have some stain of soldier in you. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Blot; spot; taint; pollution; blemish; tarnish; color; disgrace; infamy; shame. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A workman who stains; as, a stainer of wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

The very care he took to keep his name
Stainless, with some was evidence of shame. Crabbe. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Blameless; spotless; faultless. See Blameless. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A series of steps, as for passing from one story of a house to another; -- commonly used in the plural; but originally used in the singular only. “I a winding stair found.” Chaucer's Dream. [ 1913 Webster ]

Below stairs, in the basement or lower part of a house, where the servants are. --
Flight of stairs, the stairs which make the whole ascent of a story. --
Pair of stairs, a set or flight of stairs. -- pair, in this phrase, having its old meaning of a set. See Pair, n., 1. --
Run of stairs (Arch.), a single set of stairs, or section of a stairway, from one platform to the next. --
Stair rod, a rod, usually of metal, for holding a stair carpet to its place. --
Up stairs. See Upstairs in the Vocabulary. [ 1913 Webster ]

To make a complete staircase is a curious piece of architecture. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Staircase shell. (Zool.) (a) Any scalaria, or wentletrap. (b) Any species of Solarium, or perspective shell. [ 1913 Webster ]

I waked again, for my sustain was the Lord. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Every pillar the temple to sustain. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, to keep from sinking, as in despondence, or the like; to support. [ 1913 Webster ]

No comfortable expectations of another life to sustain him under the evils in this world. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To maintain; to keep alive; to support; to subsist; to nourish; as, provisions to sustain an army. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To endure without failing or yielding; to bear up under; as, to sustain defeat and disappointment. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To suffer; to bear; to undergo. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shall Turnus, then, such endless toil sustain? Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

You shall sustain more new disgraces. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To allow the prosecution of; to admit as valid; to sanction; to continue; not to dismiss or abate; as, the court sustained the action or suit. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To prove; to establish by evidence; to corroborate or confirm; to be conclusive of; as, to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To support; uphold; subsist; assist; relieve; suffer; undergo. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]