from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Stage \Stage\ (st[=a]j), n. [OF. estage, F. ['e]tage, (assumed)
LL. staticum, from L. stare to stand. See {Stand}, and cf.
{Static}.]
1. A floor or story of a house. [Obs.] --Wyclif.
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2. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play
be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like.
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3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work,
or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
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4. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
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5. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the
playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing
dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited.
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Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the
stage. --Pope.
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Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. --C.
Sprague.
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6. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of
any noted action or career; the spot where any remarkable
affair occurs; as, politicians must live their lives on
the public stage.
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When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools. --Shak.
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Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.
--Miton.
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7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is
placed to be viewed. See Illust. of {Microscope}.
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8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage
house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
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9. A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several
portions into which a road or course is marked off; the
distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage
of ten miles.
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A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a
road. --Jeffrey.
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He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite
horse performing the journey by easy stages.
--Smiles.
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10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress
toward an end or result.
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Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage
in the progress of society. --Macaulay.
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11. A large vehicle running from station to station for the
accommodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus. "A
parcel sent you by the stage." --Cowper. [Obsolescent]
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I went in the sixpenny stage. --Swift.
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12. (Biol.) One of several marked phases or periods in the
development and growth of many animals and plants; as,
the larval stage; pupa stage; zoea stage.
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{Stage box}, a box close to the stage in a theater.
{Stage carriage}, a stagecoach.
{Stage door}, the actors' and workmen's entrance to a
theater.
{Stage lights}, the lights by which the stage in a theater is
illuminated.
{Stage micrometer}, a graduated device applied to the stage
of a microscope for measuring the size of an object.
{Stage wagon}, a wagon which runs between two places for
conveying passengers or goods.
{Stage whisper}, a loud whisper, as by an actor in a theater,
supposed, for dramatic effect, to be unheard by one or
more of his fellow actors, yet audible to the audience; an
aside.
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