Also 7 stapple. [Of uncertain origin; perh. a back-formation from STAPLE v.2 or STAPLER, the sorting of wool according to quality being part of the business of the stapler.]
1. The fiber of any particular variety or sample of wool (in later use also of cotton, flax, or other material for textile processes) considered with regard to its length and fineness; a particular length and degree of fineness in the fiber of wool, cotton, etc.
1481. Cely Papers (Camden), 66. They causyd me to kep hyt [your new wool] iiij or v dayes and then the sayd the staple therof was to schoorte.
c. 1580. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1914), July, 523. Theyr woolles beinge of so course a staple that it will not ronne in threde unles they mingle our woolles withall.
1596. Mascall, Bk. Cattle, Sheep (1627), 200. Ye must see that ye buy no Ram nor other Sheepe that hath a thin staple, or small store of wooll.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xlviii. I. 227. The wooll of Apulia is of a short staple, and specially in request for cloakes and mantles, and nothing else.
1610. Folkingham, Feudigr., 9. Lemster Ore merits the preheminence (though it be short) for a purely-fine, soft and crisped Staple.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 9. To cutt of all the shaggie hairy woll … by which meanes they make them seeme more snodde and of a better stapple.
1675. Grew, Anat. Plants (1682), 140. The Qualities … of the best Tow … are that the Staple be long, small, tough, and white.
1754. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Publ. Rec., App. II. 128. An Engine … which will … lay the Harle or Staple of the Wool more straight and close than any Yarn yet produced.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 389. Some difficulty might be expected to occur in adapting the rollers to different staples.
1861. Times, 27 Sept., 7/4. That straight staple and open fleece which the Lincoln long-wool grazier avoids.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 261/2. The staple of mohair is from five to six inches long.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 180. It is essential to the character of a good wool, that there should be an evenness of staple.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 323. The fibre from which these nets are made has a long staple.
b. A lock of wool.
1805. Luccock, Nat. Wool, 134. In such coats the … staples separate easily from each other, and the wool dies in the bowl.
1884. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 15. This can be done … by pulling a staple out of the fleece. If it be a wether, the staple will come clean out without interfering to any extent with the surrounding staples; but if it be a hog, some of the fibres of the other staples will adhere to the bottom of the one being pulled.
1885. F. H. Bowman, Struct. Wool, Gloss., 359. Staple. The lock of wool or hair which is formed by the aggregation of fibres in the fleece.
c. Unmanufactured wool.
1885. Wool Trade Circular, Jan. The situation as regards cross-bred staple has proved somewhat exceptional. Ibid. (1897), Jan. Though crossbreds were somewhat neglected, prices for merino staple rose 71/2 per cent. Ibid., All grades of staple fell 10 per cent. in value.
2. The fiber of which a thread or a textile fabric is composed. Hence gen. the material of which anything is made. Also fig.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. i. 19. He draweth out the thred of his verbositie finer then the staple of his argument.
1682. Grew, Anat. Plants, Ep. Ded. 2. The Staple of the Stuff is so exquisitely fine, that no Silk-worm is able to draw any thing near so small a Thred.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 208. The substance [sc. a kind of paper] … appears to be of a coarser grain, a shorter staple, and of a much looser texture.
1824. Johnson, Typogr., II. 644. Producing a good paper in appearance, from an inferior staple.
1831. G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 206. Even when the injury occurring to the staple of the thread is less apparent.
1845–6. Trench, Hulsean Lect., Ser. I. ii. 34. The staple out of which its whole web is woven.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., xxii. (1865), III. 40. Lucilius himself could not refrain from interweaving Greek words with the homely staple of his Latin style.
1882. Annie Edwardes, A Ballroom Repentance, I. 227. The proper amount of feminine coaching: the coaching that teaches you how to find staple for conversation out of the slightest materials.
3. The stratum of vegetable mold overlying the rock; a particular depth or quality of this.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 70. A shallow grete or staple. Ibid., 263. The tops of such grass will be coarse and sour, as running to a length beyond what the staple of the ground can well carry.
1771. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 265. The general objection of farmers against ploughing up the dead earth, or going beyond what is called the staple; that is, that body of dark-coloured mould, which seems to be in part formed of rotten vegetables and animal substances.
1793. A. Young, Agric. Sussex, 10. Advancing down the hills, the soil becomes of a deeper staple.
1802. R. Brookes, Gazetteer (ed. 12), s.v. Rutlandshire, The E and SE parts are of a shallow staple upon limestone rock.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 29. The country through Ashton … consists of a brown tender mould of a good staple on a Dunstone rubble.
1861. Times, 11 July, 7/4. In a clover-ley field, where plenty of stone showed itself at 6 inches or 7 inches depth, under a hard and tough staple.
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) staple-end; also staple-rope (see quot. 1794); staple-soil = sense 3; staple-threaded a., composed of thread of selected staple.
1884. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 15. By examining the *staple-ends to see whether they are pointed or thick.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, 57. *Staple-ropes, a term for ropes made of hemp not inferior to clean Petersburgh.
1847. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VIII. II. 317. This is chiefly a deep *staple soil.
1856. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 20/2. His practice never advanced further than to lay bare the subsoil in the ‘intervals’ by gathering the staple-soil into the wheat ridges.
1896. Daily News, 9 April, 6/5. Woven with a double warp and a *staple-threaded weft of the strongest wools, its durability and retentiveness of dye are such as to recommend it to the prudent purchaser.
