[f. STAKE sb.1 MDu. (mod.Du. dial., WFlem.), G. staken.]
1. trans. To mark (land) with stakes.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1852. Þey … mesured lond, & dide hit stake þat ilkon dide his owen knowe. Ibid. (1338), Chron. (1810), 309. [They] þat þorgh þe reame suld go, þe boundes forto stake.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 41. [Meadows] ought to be well staked bytwene euery mannes dole.
1715. Maryland Laws, vi. (1723), 20. The Surveyor … shall have … Fees and Rewards of laying out and staking the Towns and Lots.
1716. in Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875), 139. Each man’s several quantities being set out and staked.
b. with advs. off, out; esp. to mark out (land, a building site, etc.) with stakes or pegs. Also fig.
1445. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 404. The enlarging of garit hostell, as hit is now staked out.
1624. Capt. Smith, Hist. Virginia, VI. 232. We went to measure out the grounds: and so we cast lots where euery man should lie, which we staked out.
1710. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 49. Thomas … has survey’d and stak’d out the same.
1876. R. Bridges, Growth of Love, viii. Poet. Wks. (1912), 191. And against her shames Imagination stakes out heavenly claims.
1885. Manch. Exam., 6 May, 4/7. It will only remain to stake off the boundary through the intermediate districts.
2. To protect, support or obstruct with stakes.
a. 1500. Bale’s Chron., in Flenley Six Town Chron. (1911), 130. And they hadde mervelously staked all þe feeld aboute þeym that no power of horsmen shuld com and override theym.
1530. Palsgr., 732/1. I stake a hedge, je mets des espieux en vne haye.
1576. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 382. The water corse going to the howse of offyce … shalbe staked and stopped uppe.
1591. Savile, Tacitus, Hist., II. xix. 63. Order was giuen that the camp should be entrenched and staked.
1602. Ld. Mountjoy, in Moryson’s Itin. (1617), II. 213. Long traverses … staked on both sides with pallisades watled.
b. with advs. To close up or in, to keep out, to shut off with a barrier of stakes.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., V. iii. 73. I shall praise thee all the while So be, thou stake not vp the common stile: So be thou hedge in nought, but what’s thine owne.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt, 19. The Duke of Glocester … Then caus’d his Ships the riuer vp to Stake, That none with Victuall should the Towne relieue.
1644. Milton, Divorce, II. xvi. 62. No marvell any thing if letters must be turn’d into palisadoes to stake out all requisite sense from entring to their due enlargement.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., iii. On the bank of loose stones above the mud and stakes that staked the tide out.
1883. H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W. (ed. 2), 71. This world of natural men is staked off from the Spiritual World by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within.
c. To put stakes or a stake to (a plant).
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., March (1679), 13. Stake and bind up your weakest Plants and Flowers against the Winds.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 90. They staked each Tree with four Poles, of about ten Foot long.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 255. Beans answer excellently, to stake the tares intended for seed.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., II. 200. All open standards should be staked as soon as planted.
3. To secure with or as with a stake. a. To bind or tie up (an animal) to a stake; to bind (a person) to the stake for execution. Also with out.
1544. in I. S. Leadam, Sel. Cases Crt. Requests (1893), 79. His seruauntes dyd tedre and stayk thar horses vpon vi hawyns of Stokeleys.
1772. T. Simpson, Vermin-Killer, 22. The only method that can be taken is … by staking a chicken by the leg.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iv. 74. He ordered two soldiers to catch and stake me…. This is a very severe punishment; four posts are driven into the ground, and the man is extended by his arms and legs horizontally, and there left to stretch for several hours.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xlii. 328. Our horses were unsaddled and staked on the open plain.
1895. O. K. Davis, in Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 403/1. We rode up as far toward the top of the ridge as we dared go and then staked out the ponies.
fig. 1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Southey & Landor, Wks. 1853, II. 156/1. The poet is staked and faggoted by his surrounding brethren.
b. To fasten (a thing) down, on with a stake or with stakes.
1621. Markham, Fowling, 114. These Nets being thus stakt downe with strong stakes.
1852. R. F. Burton, Falconry Valley Indus, viii. 80. Strong fishing-nets, carefully staked down.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 44. In fixing the wheels and pullies upon a shaft, which is mostly done by driving wedges in the bush of the wheel or pulley, called staking them on.
† c. fig. To fasten securely as by a stake. Chiefly with down. Obs.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 16. I haue a soale of Lead So stakes me to the ground, I cannot moue.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Wks. (Grosart), III. 195. Nere tell me of this or that he sayes I spake or did, except he particularize and stake downe the verie words.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 12. Men … that seem to be staked down and nailed fast to the Earth.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., II. vii. (1852), 147. I know not whether the terrors of my dreadful voyage hither might not be ordered by the Divine Providence to stake me in this land.
a. 1734. North, Life Ld. Keeper Guilford (1742), 14. His Mind was so airy and volatile, he could not have kept his Chamber, if he must needs be there staked down purely to the Drudgery of the Law.
4. To impale (a person) on a stake. Also with up. Also, to transfix and fasten down (a person) with a stake.
1577. Holinshed, Hist. Scot., 203/2, marg. The procurers of the murder were staked.
a. 1593. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, IV. i. That with the sharpnes of my edged sting, I might haue stakte them both vnto the earth.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 24. Others [Nero] staked through, rosined and waxened over their bodies, and so set them lighted up, as torches.
1657. Billingsly, Brachy-Martyrol., vii. 26. Seven sons she had, all stak’d, rack’d and at last Thrust through, were into a deep pit cast.
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, I. Stake me, ye Gods, with thunder to the Earth.
1716. B. Church, Hist. Philip’s War (1867), II. 129. His body being staked up, his head cut off, and a hogs head set in the room.
1786. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Odes to R.A.’s, i. Wks. 1812, I. 128. Stak’d through the body like a paltry Thief.
b. pass. Of a horse, etc.: To be injured by impalement on a hedge or fence stake. Also refl.; hence trans., to cause a horse to stake himself.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2281/4. A bright bay Gelding…, a … Scar on the far side near the Flank, (where he had been stak’d).
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 326. If any of these Dogs should happen to stake themselves, by brushing through Hedges.
1884. Law Times, LXXVIII. 100/1. The animals … attempted to jump a fence. The foal was staked and had to be killed.
† 5. To drive in (a pile, etc.) Obs. rare–1.
c. 1612. Sir D. Carleton, Lett., 13 April, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 572. Hee hathe pulled up the piles, that ye Ferraresi had staked in.
6. Leather-manuf. (See quot. 1853.)
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2124/4. Stolen…, about 350 of the best Kids, some ready pared, and some in the Crust not staked.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts (ed. 4), II. 63. The tawed skins, when dry, are ‘staked,’ that is stretched, scraped, and smoothed by friction against the blunt edge of a semi-circular knife.
7. ‘To push with a stake or a pole, as a railroad car’ (Webster, 1911). ? U.S.
