stage

stage
    n 1: any distinct time period in a sequence of events; "we are
         in a transitional stage in which many former ideas must be
         revised or rejected" [syn: {phase}, {stage}]
    2: a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or
       especially in a process; "a remarkable degree of frankness";
       "at what stage are the social sciences?" [syn: {degree},
       {level}, {stage}, {point}]
    3: a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by
       an audience; "he clambered up onto the stage and got the
       actors to help him into the box"
    4: the theater as a profession (usually `the stage'); "an early
       movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the
       contemporary stage"
    5: a large coach-and-four formerly used to carry passengers and
       mail on regular routes between towns; "we went out of town
       together by stage about ten or twelve miles" [syn:
       {stagecoach}, {stage}]
    6: a section or portion of a journey or course; "then we
       embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise" [syn:
       {stage}, {leg}]
    7: any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing
       something; "All the world's a stage"--Shakespeare; "it set
       the stage for peaceful negotiations"
    8: a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is
       mounted for examination [syn: {stage}, {microscope stage}]
    v 1: perform (a play), especially on a stage; "we are going to
         stage `Othello'" [syn: {stage}, {present}, {represent}]
    2: plan, organize, and carry out (an event); "the neighboring
       tribe staged an invasion" [syn: {stage}, {arrange}]
    

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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Stage \Stage\ (st[=a]j), v. t.
   To exhibit upon a stage, or as upon a stage; to display
   publicly. --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]
    

284 Moby Thesaurus words for "stage":
      Broadway, L, R, acting, acting area, agora, amphitheater, apron,
      apron stage, arena, athletic field, auditorium, autobus, back,
      backdrop, background, backstage, balcony, band, band shell,
      bandstand, be a gas, be a hit, bear garden, bed, bedding, belt,
      bill, board, boards, bomb, bowl, boxing ring, bridge, bring out,
      bull ring, burlesque, bus, cab, campus, canvas, carnival, caste,
      catafalque, chartered bus, circus, class, cockpit, coliseum,
      colosseum, concoct, condition, contrive, couche, coulisse, course,
      dais, day, deck, devise, diligence, distance, division, do, dock,
      double-decker, drama, dramatize, dressing room, echafaudage,
      echelon, emplacement, entertainment industry, estrade, execute,
      exhibit, fail, fake, fateful moment, feature, field, flies, floor,
      flop, fly floor, fly gallery, footing, footlights, forestage,
      forum, gallery, give, grade, greenroom, grid, gridiron, ground,
      gym, gymnasium, hack, hall, headline, heliport, hierarchy,
      hinterland, hippodrome, hired car, hour, hustings, instant,
      interval, jitney, juncture, kairos, landing, landing pad,
      landing stage, lap, launching pad, layer, ledge, legit,
      legitimate stage, level, lightboard, lists, locale, mail coach,
      make a hit, make up, manipulate, marketplace, mat, measures,
      melodramatize, milieu, minute, mise-en-scene, moment,
      moment of truth, motor coach, motorbus, mount, notch, off Broadway,
      off-off-Broadway, omnibus, open, open a show, open forum,
      orchestra, orchestra pit, order, organize, originate, overlayer,
      overstory, palaestra, parade ground, perform, performing area,
      period, phase, pit, place, platform, play, playland, podium, point,
      position, post coach, power structure, precedence, precinct,
      pregnant moment, premiere, present, preview, prize ring, produce,
      proscenium, proscenium stage, psychological moment, public square,
      pulpit, purlieu, put on, range, rank, rate, rating, rear,
      repertory drama, ring, rostrum, rung, scaffold, scaffolding,
      scenarize, scene, scene of action, scenery, seam, season,
      set the stage, setting, shelf, shell, show, show biz,
      show business, site, situation, soapbox, space, span, spell,
      sphere, spot, squared circle, stadium, stage left, stage right,
      stage set, stage setting, stage world, stagecoach, stagedom,
      stageland, staging, standing, star, station, status, step,
      step terrace, stock, story, stratum, strawhat, strawhat circuit,
      stretch, stump, substratum, succeed, summer stock, superstratum,
      switchboard, taxi, taxicab, terrace, terrain, the boards,
      the footlights, the scenes, the stage, the theater, theater,
      theater world, theatricalize, theatromania, theatrophobia,
      thickness, tier, tilting ground, tiltyard, time, time lag, topsoil,
      tribunal, tribune, trump up, try out, underlayer, understory,
      understratum, variety, vaudeville, walk, while, wings,
      wrestling ring, zone