STAVE IN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stave in mean? 

• STAVE IN (verb)
  The verb STAVE IN has 2 senses:

1. break in the staves (of)

2. burst or force (a hole) into something

  Familiarity information: STAVE IN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STAVE IN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Break in the staves (of)

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

stave in a cask

Hypernyms (to "stave in" is one way to...):

break in (break so as to fall inward)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Burst or force (a hole) into something

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

stave; stave in

Hypernyms (to "stave in" is one way to...):

break open; burst; split (come open suddenly and violently, as if from internal pressure)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

When all was completed and the muster called in the castle yard the oldest soldier of the French wars was fain to confess that he had never looked upon a better equipped or more warlike body of men, from the old knight with his silk jupon, sitting his great black war-horse in the front of them, to Hordle John, the giant recruit, who leaned carelessly upon a huge black bow-stave in the rear.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I'm a going, first, to stave in that theer boat, and sink it where I would have drownded him, as I'm a living soul, if I had had one thought of what was in him!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)