Now dial. Also 6–7 stoover, stouver, stower. [Aphetic variant of ESTOVER.]
† 1. The provision of food (for persons or animals) necessary for a journey or a sojourn. Obs.
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2606. Thai … fond hire that night stouer, And left here alone.
13[?]. K. Alis., 1866. Anon was … Y-charged mony a selcouth beste, Olifauns, and eke camailes, With armure, and eke vitailes;… Assen and muylyn, with heore stoveris.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7611. For wonderliche þai weren bliþe Of þe eiȝtte & stouers, Þat þai brouȝt, þo pauteners.
a. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1149. A schip þou bring me tille, Mine harp to play me þare, Stouer ynouȝ to wille To kepe me, son ȝou ȝare.
2. † a. gen. Winter food for cattle. Obs.
1557. Tusser, 100 Points Husb., xxxvii. If barne rome will serue, lay thy stoouer vp drye, and eche kinde of strawe, by hitselfe let it lie.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 271/1. He plowed vp the fieldes, that there should no stouer be found to serue their horses.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., V. (1593), 116. Dame Ceres … made corne and stover soft to grow upon the ground.
1577. Harrison, England, I. xiii. 38/1, in Holinshed. The haye of our lowe meddowes is … not so profitable, for stouer and forrage as ye higher meades be.
1578. Timme, Calvin on Gen. vi. 22. 189. Noah … had much more businesse and trouble in prouiding stouer and prouinder for beastes themselues.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXIII. xlviii. 506. The corn was … so well grown, that the blade therof yeelded good forage & stouver for the horses.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 63. Ceres … Thy Turphie-Mountaines, where liue nibling Sheepe, And flat Medes thetchd with Stouer, them to keepe.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., XXV. 145. And others from their Carres, are busily about, To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and Stouer fit.
1634–5. Ir. Act 10 & 11 Chas. I., c. xvii. (1678), 474. The … improvident care of the owners, that neither provide fodder, nor stover for them [sc. cattle] in winter, nor [etc.].
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 118. Whereas gloomy cold and close weather, shuts them in and saves stover.
1674. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, Stover: Fodder for cattel, as hay, straw or the like, Ess.
fig. 1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XVI. v. 56. Gathering together certaine forage and stoover (as it were) for to feed his mind [L. quasi pabulum animo … conquirens].
b. spec. In various applications according to locality: Hay made from clover; broken straw, etc., from the threshing-floor; stubble. (See quots.)
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 276. Stover, Straw.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 84. A good Crop of Peas, or other Stover in great Quantities has been taken off. Ibid., 381. These Creatures are of prodigious Service in converting Stover to one of the best of Dungs.
1763. Museum Rust. (ed. 2), I. 191. Neither is the haulm so good, as it will not serve for stover for our cattle in the winter.
1787. W. H. Marshall, E. Norfolk, II. 389. Stover, a general term for the different species of fodder arising from thrashed corn, whether it be straw, chaff, or ‘colder.’ Ibid. (1788), Yorks., II. 45. The stover (that is, the pulls and points of the [rape-] straw broken off in thrashing) is as acceptable to them [sc. cattle] as hay.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Stuva or Stover, clover made into hay.
1840. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., I. III. 255. The land not producing then stover sufficient to keep any stock worth mentioning.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stover, or Sturver, haulm, stubble; the second mowing or growth of clover.
1883. C. Wilson, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 271/2. The … annual yield of corn stover in its various forms is not less than 120,000,000 tons.
1889. Hissey, Tour in Phaeton, 140. At Woodbridge we observed … the notice ‘Stover sold here.’
† 3. Used for: ? Reeds. (Cf. quot. 1622 in 2 a.)
1621. Markham, Fowling, 9. They loue also … Fennes,… ouergrowne with tall and long rushes, reads, seges, stouer, or any other kinde of Couert.
1638. W. Lisle, Heliodorus, I. 7. Where th’ ouer-flouds of Nile Fall int’ a Dale vnmeatly midward deepe, Though nigh the banks to muddy fen it creepe. This Stouer breeds, which some for pasture take.
1895. E. Angl. Gloss., Stiver or Stover marsh litter or marsh stuff.
