STAID

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does staid mean? 

• STAID (adjective)
  The adjective STAID has 1 sense:

1. characterized by dignity and propriety

  Familiarity information: STAID used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STAID (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by dignity and propriety

Synonyms:

sedate; staid

Similar:

decorous (characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste in manners and conduct)

Derivation:

staidness (a trait of dignified seriousness)

 Context examples 

Miss Taylor, if you had not married, you would have staid at home with me.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

After an interval of silence, “I think they might as well have staid for me,” said he.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He wandered through the village, recognising with staid satisfaction the various gods he had known before the long journey.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He staid an hour with them.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

We staid there three weeks to refresh our crew, many of whom were sick.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

She had a little basket-trifle hanging at her side, with keys in it; and she looked as staid and as discreet a housekeeper as the old house could have.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The staid and sober Oakland folk who sat upon the car scarcely noted the young fellow and the girl who ran for it and found a seat in front on the outside.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Her appearance always acted as a damper to the curiosity raised by her oral oddities: hard-featured and staid, she had no point to which interest could attach.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was exactly what he had been, when I knew him in Hertfordshire; but I would not tell you how little I was satisfied with her behaviour while she staid with us, if I had not perceived, by Jane's letter last Wednesday, that her conduct on coming home was exactly of a piece with it, and therefore what I now tell you can give you no fresh pain.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He entered the room with a look of self-consequence, slightly bowed to the ladies, without speaking a word, and, after briefly surveying them and their apartments, took up a newspaper from the table, and continued to read it as long as he staid.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)