Staple
['steɪp(ə)l] or ['stepl]
Definition
(noun.) paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire that can fasten papers together.
(noun.) a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables.
(noun.) a natural fiber (raw cotton, wool, hemp, flax) that can be twisted to form yarn; 'staple fibers vary widely in length'.
(verb.) secure or fasten with a staple or staples; 'staple the papers together'.
(adj.) necessary or important, especially regarding food or commodities; 'wheat is a staple crop' .
Editor: Val--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A settled mart; an emporium; a city or town to which merchants brought commodities for sale or exportation in bulk; a place for wholesale traffic.
(n.) Hence: Place of supply; source; fountain head.
(n.) The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a principal commodity or production of a country or district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples of the United States.
(n.) The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
(n.) Unmanufactured material; raw material.
(n.) The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
(n.) A loop of iron, or a bar or wire, bent and formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a hook, pin, or the like.
(n.) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.
(n.) A small pit.
(n.) A district granted to an abbey.
(a.) Pertaining to, or being market of staple for, commodities; as, a staple town.
(a.) Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled; as, a staple trade.
(a.) Fit to be sold; marketable.
(a.) Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
(v. t.) To sort according to its staple; as, to staple cotton.
Checked by Francis
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Chief commodity (of a country or a district), principal production.[2]. Fibre (of cotton, wool, &c.), pile, filament.[3]. Raw material.[4]. Bulk, mass, body, substance, principal part, greater part.
a. Chief, principal.
Checker: Norris
Definition
n. a loop of iron &c. for holding a bolt &c.: the metallic tube to which the reed is fastened in the oboe &c.
n. a settled mart or market: the principal production or industry of a district or country: the principal element: the thread of textile fabrics: unmanufactured material.—adj. established in commerce: regularly produced for market.—n. Stā′pler a dealer.
Editor: Lorna
Examples
- The staple to which my chains were fixed, was more rusted than I or the villain Abbot had supposed. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- We must approach him sooner or later, for he is the staple of what I have to say, and it's as well at once. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The subject of the growing of cotton came under discussion, and some one spoke of the unfortunate fact that no method had been found for cleaning the cotton staple of the green seed. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Plantation gangs began to oust the patch cultivation of the labourer-serf in the case of some staple products. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- My little woman, says Mr. Snagsby to the sparrows in Staple Inn, likes to have her religion rather sharp, you see! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- By that machine only the long staple fibre was secured, leaving the cotton seed covered with a short fibre, which with the seed was regarded as a waste product. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- To separate a single pound of the clean staple from the green seed took a whole day’s work for a woman. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- The chimney is wide, but is barred up by four large staples. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- That he discovered two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without any passage for light. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- The lightning will not leave the rod (a good conductor) through those staples. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Now flowed forth, as from some Vulcan's titanic workshop, machines for making bolts, nuts, rivets, screws, chains, staples, car wheels, shafts, etc. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
Inputed by Heinrich