Also 5 stabel, 5–6 stabil, (6 stabble). [f. STABLE sb.1 Cf. OF. establer (perh. the source); also L. stabulāre, -ārī intr.]
1. trans. To put (a horse) into a stable, or into a place that is used as a stable. Formerly also with up (rare).
13[?]. Coer de L., 6770. At the gate he sette porters, And stablede up hys destrers.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3753. Wan þay had mad fast aboute & y-stablyd þe stede.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.), 75. He on a tyme … stabled his hors in Salamon is Temple.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. iv. 102. The Centawris wer stabillit at this port.
1557. Tusser, 100 Points Husb., xxxviii. When pasture is gone,… then stable thy plough horse.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. IV. Columnes, 461. Stabbling Thy smoaking Coursers under th’ Earth, to bait.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xliii. I. 223. Wheresoever they [asses] bee stabled, they love to lie at large and have roume ynough.
1688. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 121. They never Shoe them, nor Stable them in general.
a. 1791. Lochmaben Harper, iv. in Child, Ballads, IV. 18/2. Gae stable up the harper’s mare.
1820. Scott, Monast., xiv. Art thou there, old Truepenny? here, stable me these steeds, and see them well bedded.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 293. A third could never go into his parish church without being reminded … that Oliver’s redcoats had once stabled their horses there.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 117. As soon as I have stabled the horses.
b. Of a building: To afford stabling for.
1903. ‘S. G. Tallentyre,’ Voltaire, xxxii. (1905), 338. An immense barn which stabled fifty cows and their calves.
2. intr. Of an animal: To live in a stable.
1508. Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869), I. 117. With … sufficient lokkis … for thair duris, for the sure keping of the hors that stabillis with thame.
1601. Holland, Pliny, IV. xi. I. 78. There, stood the towne Tinda, terrible for the horses of Diomedes that stabled there.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, xxi. 423. The domestic animals of the Arabs are found stabling in the very buildings which may once, perhaps, have sheltered the Carthaginian Elephants.
b. transf. To live as in a stable.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xxx. 239. Forgetting their ancient yoke fellows the rural Presbyters, they stable with the King.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 748. In thir Palaces … Sea-monsters whelp’d And stabl’d.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 470. All the monsters of the sea stabled in the cavities at the foot the mountain.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, II. iv. Tyrants dwelt side by side, And stabled in our homes.
1909. R. Bridges, Ibant obscuri, Poet. Wks. (1913), 449 [Æneid, VI. 286]. And many strange creatures of monstrous form and features Stable about th’ entrance.
† 3. To turn into a stable. Obs. rare–1.
1649. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wand. West, 19. Exeter … is a faire sweete City, a goodly Cathedrall Church (not yet quite spoyled or stabled).
