Stage (?), n. [OF. estage, F.
étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L.
stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Static.]
1. A floor or story of a house. [Obs.]
Wyclif.
2. An elevated platform on which an orator may
speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the
like.
3. A floor elevated for the convenience of
mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
4. A platform, often floating, serving as a
kind of wharf.
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.
Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the
stage.
Pope.
Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded
stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.
C.
Sprague.
6. A place where anything is publicly
exhibited; the scene of any noted action or carrer; the spot where any
remarkable affair occurs.
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this stage of fools.
Shak.
Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.
Miton.
7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an
object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of
Microscope.
8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled
road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of
horses.
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.
A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a
road.
Jeffrey.
He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse
performing the journey by easy stages.
Smiles.
10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or
of progress toward an end or result.
Such a polity is suited only to a particular
stage in the progress of society.
Macaulay.
11. A large vehicle running from station to
station for the accomodation of the public; a stagecoach; an
omnibus. "A parcel sent you by the stage."
Cowper.
I went in the sixpenny stage.
Swift.
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; zœa
stage.
Stage box, a box close to the stage in a
theater. -- Stage carriage, a
stagecoach. -- Stage door, the actor's 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.
Stage (?), v. t. To exhibit upon a
stage, or as upon a stage; to display publicly.
Shak.
Stage (?), n. [OF. estage, F.
étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L.
stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Static.]
1. A floor or story of a house. [Obs.]
Wyclif.
2. An elevated platform on which an orator may
speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the
like.
3. A floor elevated for the convenience of
mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
4. A platform, often floating, serving as a
kind of wharf.
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.
Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the
stage.
Pope.
Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded
stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.
C.
Sprague.
6. A place where anything is publicly
exhibited; the scene of any noted action or carrer; the spot where any
remarkable affair occurs.
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this stage of fools.
Shak.
Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring.
Miton.
7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an
object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of
Microscope.
8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled
road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of
horses.
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.
A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a
road.
Jeffrey.
He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse
performing the journey by easy stages.
Smiles.
10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or
of progress toward an end or result.
Such a polity is suited only to a particular
stage in the progress of society.
Macaulay.
11. A large vehicle running from station to
station for the accomodation of the public; a stagecoach; an
omnibus. "A parcel sent you by the stage."
Cowper.
I went in the sixpenny stage.
Swift.
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; zœa
stage.
Stage box, a box close to the stage in a
theater. -- Stage carriage, a
stagecoach. -- Stage door, the actor's 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.
Stage (?), v. t. To exhibit upon a
stage, or as upon a stage; to display publicly.
Shak.
