Forms: 4 stuwe, (?) stuy, 4–7 stewe, stue, 5 stiewe, stwe, styuye, stywe, stywye, 5– stew. [a. OF. estui (mod.F. étui case, sheath, also tub for keeping fish in a boat), verbal noun f. estuier to shut up, keep in reserve.
Godefroy has an instance (dated 1396) of OF. estui in the sense of the Eng. word, although he explains it wrongly.]
† 1. In the phrase in stew [= OF. en estui], said of fish kept in confinement, to be ready for the table.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 350. Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in Muwe, And many a Breem, and many a luce in Stuwe.
14[?]. Piers of Fullham, in Hartshorne, Anc. Metr. T. (1829), 119. They to fisshyng goon wyth envy,… And wayte in waraynes all the nyght,… To bribe and bere away the best. That soiourne and kept bien in stiewe For store that nothyng shulde hym remewe.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 33. Thy ponds renew, put eeles in stew, To leeue till Lent.
2. A pond or tank in which fish are kept until needed for the table.
1387. in E. E. Wills (1882), 2. Þe sesterne þat longeþ to the stuys.
139[?]. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 74. Cuidam valetto custodienti le Stewe manerii Episcopi, v s. pr.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle, V. xiv. (1859), 80. The Apostles were the fysshers whiche that Crist found in this worldly see; whiche fisshes he putte in the stewe of his loued chirche.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 665. Stywys, dichis and briggis.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., c. 2. All manner of fisshinges with any nettes [etc.] … in any severall ponde stewe or mote withe an intent to steale fissh out of the same.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 234. A contrivance for Fish-ponds,… where the stews not only feed one another,… and may be sewed by letting the water of the upper Ponds out into the lower.
1755. Cambridge, in World, No. 123, ¶ 2. It would be a noble employment for the lovers of antiquity, to study to restore those infallible resources of luxury, the salt-water stews of the Romans.
1774. T. West, Antiq. Furness, 95. Their mills, kilns, ovens, and stews for receiving their fish.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. (1865), 213. A somewhat remarkable natural stew or pond exists in Jersey, in the manor of St. Ouen.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 24. The young fish may advantageously be confined in ‘stews’ or artificial enclosures.
† b. transf. A pond of any kind; also, a moat.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 769. Let make a stewe With rayn watir, thyn herbis to renewe.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, Capitall de Buz, 139. This castle was inuirond with deep stew.
3. An artificial oyster-bed.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 335. Oisters, (whereof there are many pits, or stewes).
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, V. iii. He that inuented the first stewes, for Oysters, And other Sea-fish.
1817. J. Evans, Excurs. Windsor, etc. 452. At Colchester, Milton, &c., stews or layers of Oysters are formed in places which nature had never allotted for them.
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industr. (Fish. Industr. U.S.), 249. Stew, an artificial bed of oysters. Applied to the old Roman, and also to the modern methods of fattening (English).
4. A breeding place for pheasants.
1888. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict.
5. attrib., as † stew-pool, stew-pond.
1623. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. p. l. To Martin 3 daies at the stue poole … 00 02 02…. To Browne 6 daies raming the stue poole heade … 00 03 00.
1797. Jane Austen, Sense & Sensib., xxx. There is a dovecote, some delightful stewponds, and a very pretty canal.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, Life & Recoll., II. 314. In a stew-pond you may tame a fish to a certain extent.
