| 释义 |
▪ I. stair, n.|stɛə(r)|
Forms: 1 stǽᵹer, 2–5 steire, 4–5 steier (5 steiar), 4 steyᵹere, 4–6 (9 dial.) steyre, 5–6 steyr, 4–6 steyer, 6 steare, stare, (7 starre), 6–7 steer(e, 4–8 stayer (6 staigher, staygher, 7 stayor), 4–7 stayre, 5–7 stayr, 6 staier, 5–7 staire, 6– stair.
[OE. stǽᵹer fem.:—OTeut. type *staiᵹrī, f. *staiᵹ-: *stī̆ᵹ- to climb: see sty v. Cf. (M)Du. steiger (WFlem. steeger staircase), LG. steiger, steger masc., scaffolding, landing-stage.]
1. a. An ascending series or ‘flight’ of steps leading from one level to another, esp. from one floor to another in a house; a staircase.
Still the ordinary use in Scotland, where ‘up the stair’, ‘down the stair’ are the usual equivalents for upstairs, downstairs, and ‘(to go up) six stairs’ means what in England would be expressed by ‘six flights of stairs’. (The whole series of steps between two successive floors counts, however, as a single ‘stair’, even when it consists of two or more ‘flights’ or portions separated by a landing.) In England the sing. in this sense is now very rare, exc. in phr. on the stair, which is itself slightly archaic.
c1000ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 126/9 Ascensorium, stæᵹer. c1000― Saints' Lives (Skeat) v. 438 Sebastianus..astah þa up to þære stæᵹre þe stod wiþ ðæs caseres botl. Ibid. xviii. 232 He feoll of anre stæᵹre, and forþy ᵹelæᵹ. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 165 Þis holie maiden..þo hie was þreo ȝier heold, [steȝh] biforen þe temple on þe steire of fiftene stoples..wiðute mannes helpe. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 813 Adoun þe steyre a-noon right þo she wente. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 115 [Tarquinius] þrewe hym doun of a staire [L. per gradus]. 1427Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 66 For a mason & his man a day to make a stayer with iij stappes, xij d ob. 1449in Cal. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. (1830) II. Pref. 54 To the seid hous shullen be ij covenable steiers, þe on ledyng up from the ground in to þe furst flore, and that other [etc.]. c1470Henry Wallace vi. 248 The scherand suerd glaid til his coler bayne, Out our the stayr amang thaim is he gayne. a1490Botoner Itin. (1778) 176 A hygh grese called a steyr of xxxii steppys. a1500Chaucer's Dreme 1311, I..walkt..Til I a winding staire found. 1503Hawes Examp. Virt. vii. cl, Than hardynes and fortune went downe the stayre. 1551R. Ascham Let. 23 Feb., Wks. 1865 I. ii. 280 The houses be eight or nine stairs high, that a wonderful number of people may look out of windows. 1597Drayton Heroic. Epist., Q. Isab. to Mortimer 39 Forth from my Pallace by a secret staire, I steale to Thames. 1632in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 480 The stayer of [the] little gate, and the stayer on the north syde of the greate gate. 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 290 A Stair of 20 Steps. 1755Johnson s.v., Stair was anciently used for the whole order of steps; but stair now, if it be used at all, signifies, as in Milton, only one flight of steps. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 1 July, There were two stairs in the house. 1781J. Moore View Soc. Italy (1790) I. v. 53 The principal entrance is by a spacious stair called the Giant's stair. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 441 A stair contained within a circular or elliptical wall is called a winding stair. 1831Scott Cast. Dang. xvii, At length she became sensible that he descended by the regular steps of a stair. 1832Macgillivray Trav. Humboldt xxiv. 372 A great stair of 57 steps conducts to the truncated summit. 1849M. Arnold Sick King Bokhara 220 While I speak, O King, I hear the bearers on the stair. 1859Tennyson Marr. Geraint 320 High above a piece of turret stair..wound. 1907Verney Mem. I. 3 A concealed door leading to a small private stair.
†b. Vaguely used for: Something on which one ascends. Obs.
13..Disput. Mary & the Cross 77 in Min. Poems Vernon MS. 614 Cros! he stikeþ nou on þi steir, Naked aȝeyn þe wylde wynde.
†c. A ladder. Obs.
a1400–50Wars Alex. 1438 Sum stepis vp on sties to þe stone wallis, On ilka staffe of a staire stike wald a cluster. 1567–9Jewel Def. Apol. iv. vii. §3 (1611) 376 Cum Papa per Scalam ascendit, &c. When the Pope taketh his staires to mount on Horsebacke.
d. fig. A means of ascending in rank, power, moral excellence, etc.
1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 422 Now hath he climbed the seconde steppe of this staire to the crowne. 1621J. Taylor (Water P.) Superbiæ Flagellum D 6 Humility is a most heauenly gift, The Stayre that doth (to Glory) men vp lift. 1627E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 9 Caring not what succeeds, so he may make it the Stair of his Preferment. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 397 Pride was the stair by which he knew they must ascend to it. 1928T. S. Eliot Song for Simon 2 They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation..Light upon light, mounting the saints' stair. 1930R. Campbell Poems 4 All the gifts my faith has brought Along the secret stair of thought.
†e. An ascending series, scale. Obs.
1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §33. 73 There is in this Universe a Staire, or manifest Scale of creatures, rising not disorderly..but with a comely method and proportion.
2. a. One of a succession of steps leading from one floor of a building to another.
Occurring earliest in figurative uses: see d.
1530Palsgr. 275/1 Stayre or grece, degré. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. iii. xi. 150 To the fyrste porches of their houses..they ascend by ten or twelue steares. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 145, I ascended the same by two hundred and forty staires of marble. 1624Wotton Archit. i. 57 That the breadth of euery single Step or Staire bee neuer lesse then one foote. 1846Dickens Pictures from Italy, Rome 226 This man touched every stair with his forehead. 1854tr. Hettner's Athens 8 The roof [of the Propylæa] is in ruins,..the stairs are scattered about in isolated fragments.
†b. A step of a ladder. Obs. rare.
13..E.E. Allit. P. C. 513 Wymmen vnwytte þat..Bitwene þe stele and þe stayre disserne noȝt cunen.
†c. Applied to a step cut in rock, to one of the successive levels in the ascent of a pyramid, etc.
1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 330 They fonde a rooche entaillid and cutte in to steyers or grees..hewyd out with chyselles. 1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 104 They deuised certayne engines..to heaue vp stones from the grounde to the fyrst stayre. 1600Pory tr. Leo's Africa v. 240 They descend by certaine staires hewen out of the rocke.
†d. fig. A step or degree in a (metaphorical) ascent or in a scale of dignity. Obs.
a1225Ancr. R. 284 Þolemodnesse..haueð þreo steiren—heie, & herre, & alre heixt, & nexst þe heie heouene. 1549Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 67 The thyrd stayer is thys. How shal they beleue in hym of whom they neuer heard? 1628Earle Microcosm., Child, The elder he growes, hee is a stayer lower from God. 1640Fuller Joseph's Coat (1 Cor. xi. 21) 27 So Summa hilaritas, is Ima ebrietas, the highest staire of mirth, is the lowest step of drunkennesse.
†e. A high position. Obs.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 23 My dearest Lord fell from high honours staire Into the hands of his accursed fone. 1627May Lucan v. 441 And..yields at the peoples prayer To be dictator, honour's highest staire.
† f. A degree of a circle. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Compl. Mars 129 He passeth but a steyre in dayes two.
3. collective plural (of sense 2).
a. = sense 1. Also, in generalized sense, the steps of staircases. (In the latter use, the plural of sense 2 coincides in application with that of sense 1, and in many examples it is difficult to determine which of the two was intended by the writer.)
pair, flight of stairs: see pair n.1 6 b, flight n.1 7. back stairs: see backstairs. above stairs, below stairs: see the preps. down stairs, up stairs: see downstairs, upstairs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxv. (1495) 710 Thina ben certen trees..and therof Salomon made steyers and grece [Vulg. gradus 2 Chron. ix. 11] and postys [Vulg. fulcra 3 Kings x. 11] in the house of our lorde. c1489Caxton Blanchardyn xlvii. 180 [They] brought her doun the stayers of the paleys. 1556in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 247 The..Coroners wer not thrust downe the stayers. 1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Conijcio, Sub scalas tabernæ librariæ se conijcere, to hyde him selfe vnder the stayers. 1577–82Breton Flourish upon Fancie (Grosart) 21/1 Why didst thou throw him downe the Steares in such a sorte? 1631Gouge God's Arrows iv. §15. 395 The whole garret..and top of staires were as full as could be. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 313 Not able to rest for ratlings and jinglings, both upon the stairs and in the Chamber. 1711Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 237 At the bottom of the Stayers. 1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 65 In lieu of such Stairs most Ships..have only Ladders. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 126 The first Figure is the great Stairs in the Garden..at S. Cloud. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 44 (Address) The secretary look'd towards the stairs, as if he was about to leave me. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. ix. III. 154 At the foot of the stairs, the company was joined by Mr. Rodney. 1839Lamartine's Trav. 116/1 Not far from the entrance of the temple, we found large openings and subterranean stairs which led us into lower constructions.
transf.1667Milton P.L. iii. 510 The Stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending.
†b. construed as sing. A flight of steps, a staircase. Obs.
1536MS. Rawl. D. 780 lf. 62 Makyng of a new stayers for the Colehouse. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Gradus,..a griese or steppe: a stayres. 1663Gerbier Counsel 23 The composing of a fit and easy Staires being a Masterpiece. 1697Evelyn Architects & Archit. Misc. Wks. (1825) 378 The perpendicular post of a winding staires. 1776S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleas. II. 242 It is a good way to any bed-chamber, and the stairs is steep. 1830James Darnley xxvi, He led the way up a little narrow stairs.
c. fig. and in fig. context; esp. applied to the means by which a person rises in rank or power. Now rare or Obs.
1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. 16 Which..make my backe, a ladder for their feete, By slaundrous steppes and stayres of tickle talke, To clyme the throne, wherin my selfe should sitte. 1600Heywood If you know not me (1605) A 3 b, The suffolke men my Lord, was to the Queene The very stayres, by which she did ascend. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 397 Tyrants very often hew downe the staires and steps whereby they ascended. 1631R. Bolton Comf. Affl. Consc. xiv. (1635) 299 In a word to climbe up more merrily those staires of joy which are prest upon us by the holy Prophet. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. iii. 249 By the stairs of a Parsonage or two he climbed up at last into the notice of Fox, Bishop of Winchester. 1648J. Beaumont Psyche viii. cxxxvii, By Virtue's daily Progress they shall build Up to the gate of Bliss their mystick stayers.
†d. Dutch stairs: app. a light winding staircase. Obs.
1649in Archæologia X. 411 A roome within the turret of the west stayres, having a payre of round Dutch stayres, arising into the very midle of it. 1701Farquhar Sir H. Wildair ii. i, My bones ache this morning as if I had lain all night on a pair of Dutch stairs.
†e. Applied to the outside steps leading to the door of a building. Obs.
c1481Caxton Dialogues 14/32 So goo to the halle Whiche is in the market; So goo vpon the steyres [Fr. sy montes les degretz]; There shall ye find the clothes. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. Acts xxi. 31–6 As Paule came to the stayghers of the castell. Ibid., The multitude..folowed, euen to the veray staighers of the castell.
4. pl. (rarely † sing.).
a. A landing-stage, esp. on the Thames in and near London.
1517in Archæologia XLVII. 312 For makyng of an upright steyer of assheler from the Themys as highe as the grounde afore the wacchehouse. 1555–6in Feuillerat Revels Q. Mary (1914) 202 The blacke fryers stayre. 1598Drayton Heroic. Epist., El. Cobham to Duke Humph. 54 When my Barge was launched from the stayre. 1643Baker Chron., Hen. III, 125 He commanded to be set ashore at the next Staires. 1687Lovell Thevenot's Trav. i. 20 This Town hath two and twenty Gates,..five on the streight of the Propontis, having all their landing Places and Stairs. 1698–9Act 11 Will. III, c. 21 §4 The said Rulers..shall..appoint the Watermen..Stairs and Places of plying..betweene Gravesend and Windsor. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. ii. ii. 71 A vessel is moored at a distance from the stairs. 1904A. Griffiths 50 Yrs. Publ. Serv. xiv. 205 Just opposite, on the riverside, were the Millbank stairs.
b. A flight of stone steps, or a steep lane or alley with steps at intervals, forming a passage from one street to another at a different level.
1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iv. xv. 129 b, You doe discend by a faire stare, about 3. quarters of a myle. 1649W. G. Surv. Newcastle 20 Neer this Street is two wayes which goes down into the Close, the long Staires and Tudhill Staires.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib. as stair-arch, stair-baluster, stair-carpet, stair-carpeting, stair-door, stair-newel, stair-rail, stair-top, etc.; stair-like adj.; stair-wise adv.; stair-builder, stair-building, stair-climbing. (Rarely stairs-.)
1883Good Words July 422/1 Marvellous ‘bits’ of broken *stair-arches.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Stair-baluster manufacturer.
1859Easterbrook & Monckton (title) American *Stair Builder. 1892Nation (N.Y.) 11 Aug. 99/2 Two stairbuilders from Boston.
1900W. & A. Mowat (title) A Treatise on *Stairbuilding and Handrailing.
1817M. Holyoke in G. F. Dow Holyoke Diaries (1911) 167 Began to mend *Stair carpet. 1834Dickens Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho. ii, Mending a piece of stair-carpet off the first landing.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4237 Twilled *stairs carpeting. 1874H. H. Cole Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus. 249 Piece of stair-carpeting.
1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 893 All *stair-climbing being strictly forbidden.
1891Meredith One of our Conq. xxv, A slam of the kitchen *stair-door restored her.
1896A. Morrison Child Jago i. 9 [He] climbed and reckoned his way up the first *stair-flight.
1848Rickman Archit. 154 Windows in staircases, or *stair-lights, are also of a distinct character in all styles.
1863–65J. Thomson Sunday at Hampstead vii, Broad terrace-gardens *stairlike sank away.
1876Hardy Ethelberta xx, She leant against the *stair-newel.
1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxvi, The narrow *stair passage.
1846Dickens Cricket on Hearth i, Deal doors, dressers, *stair-rails, bedposts.
1802G. Colman Br. Grins, Elder Bro. (1819) 125 Being much nearer the *stair top.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 50 b, The places, where open fightes wer exhibited, wer made circlewise round about with settles or benches of marble, *staier wise one aboue an other. 1871W. Kay Psalms 403 The rhythmical structure of these Psalms [cxx. to cxxxiv] (in which one line is built up upon another stair-wise).
b. Special comb.: stair-beak, a Brazilian bird of the genus Xenops; stair-cloth, a fabric for covering stairs; stair dancer slang, a thief who steals from open buildings; cf. dancer 6; stairlift, a device that can be built into a domestic staircase for the conveyance of disabled or infirm people up and down stairs; stair-maid, a maid-servant employed about the staircase in an hotel; stair-pit Mining (see quot. 1883); stair-rod (see quot. 1858); also (in pl.) a proverbial comparison for heavy rainfall; † stairs-shell ? = staircase-shell; † stair-shide, ? a side-piece for a stair-case; stair-step n., one of the steps in a flight of stairs; also fig. and as adj., resembling a stair-step; also attrib. in stair-step curve; stair-step v., to furnish with a range of steps; intr., to resemble stair-steps; hence stair-stepper, stairstepping ppl. a.; stair-tower, a stair-turret; stair-tread = tread n. 11; stair-tree, † (a) the sloping timber on or in which the ends of the steps of a wooden staircase are fixed; (b) (see quot. 1688); (c) a tree with steps in it to serve as a staircase; stair-turret, a turret with a staircase in it; stairwell, the shaft containing a flight of stairs, a well (well n.1 8 a); stair-wire, a slender stair-rod of metal; stair-work, work made or done on or in connexion with stairs. See also staircase, stair-foot, stair-head, stairway.
1869–73T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds III. 19 The *Stair-beaks (Xenops) are a group of Brazilian birds.
1771E. Haywood New Present 254 If hair *stair-cloths are used. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4247, Floor-cloths, table-covering, and stair-cloths.
1958Times 10 Feb. 4/5 ‘*Stair dancer’ is..the name given by the police to the thief who walks in and out of City offices, looking for something to steal. 1977‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon xii. 235 Since he was a stair dancer, a walk-in thief, judges had been inclined to be lenient until the last occasion, when his offence had been said..to have been aggravated by his having broken a window to ‘effect an entrance’.
1977Hansard Commons 24 Jan. 472 *Stairlift and personal passenger vertical lifts for the disabled. 1980BSI News Aug. 13/1 Stairlifts and homelifts are now extensively used in domestic situations, where they can be an invaluable aid to the disabled or infirm person.
1895Daily News 13 Feb. 10/7 Basementmaid or *Stairmaid..in hotel or business house.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining, *Stairpit, a shallow shaft or staple in a mine fitted with a ladder or steps. 1887McNeill Blawearie 95 We descended a stair-pit and breathed the peculiar air of the mines.
1843Dickens Christmas Carol iv. 130 The old man raked the fire together with an old *stair-rod. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stair-rods, metal rods, usually of brass, fixed in eyes, to secure and keep a stair-carpet smooth in the bend of each step. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 298/2 Stair rods are of solid iron, plated. 1963Times 22 Apr. 4/6 During the morning the rain came down like stair-rods. During the match it turned to a swirling drizzle. 1977D. MacKenzie Raven & Ratcatcher i. 14 The rain was falling in stair rods.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VII. 10 The *Stairs shell.
1477–9Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 85 For ij pecis for *Steir shides, vj d.
1794N. Parry Jrnl. 26 June in Kentucky Hist. Soc. Reg. (1936) XXXIV. 386 Ky. hill on the south shore is exceeding bad, being long, steep, & broken with Limestone, somewhat resembling *stair-steps. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §1089 Soles and lintels, stair-steps, crow-steps. 1904Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Sept. 568/1 The neutralization, instead of the stair-step curve, as used by Ehrlich in his spectrum, could be represented by a very regular curve. 1925C. R. Cooper Lions 'n' Tigers iv. 76 This was the district of ‘stair-steps’, of thin, narrow-shouldered women, trailed by processions of children, five and six in a line. 1944S. Putnam tr. E. da Cunha's Rebellion in Backlands ix. 415 This position..occupied a broad stairstep on the slope of the hill between Mount Mario..and the Vasa-Barris. 1959Wall St. Jrnl. (Eastern ed.) 12 Aug. 19/2 The ‘stairstep’ plan in use in Nashville calls for integration classes starting with the first grades and adding one grade each year.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. xi, Then our huge pyramidal Fatherland's-Altar, Autel de la Patrie, in the centre, also to be raised and *stair-stepped. 1961Webster, Stair-step v. intr. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 203 Some of the English terms are literal equivalents of terms used by German-speaking skiers and might be called loan translations:..stair step, Treppenschritt. 1976Billings (Montana) Gaz. 11 July 1-c/3 Yellow clover which carpets the banks smells sweet, grassy rims stairstep against the distant horizon.
1925C. R. Cooper Lions 'n' Tigers iv. 77 Don't need many ladders aroun' this country... All they have t'do is line up the kids and walk on their heads. Ever see so many *stair-steppers?
1972Nat. Geographic Sept. 335 (caption) *Stairstepping head-waters of the..river cascade out of a..bog.
1886Stevenson Kidnapped iv. 32 The key of the *stair-tower at the far end of the house.
1919Brit. Manufacturer Nov. 34/1 Sections..such as are utilised for *stair-treads, cornices, etc.
1374in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 238 Ac etiam steires et *steyretres. 1688Holme Armory iii. 340/2 The Stair Tree is the Post on which the Wheel [of the windmill] turns. 1848tr. Hoffmeister's Trav. Ceylon, etc. xi. 437 The houses rest on basements of masonry, and the ascent to the low door-way is by means of a stair-tree.
1854J. L. Petit Archit. Stud. France 73 The western piers are carried up and form *stair-turrets.
1931Dougherty & Kearney Fire vii. 99 *Stair wells and other shafts extending from the first floor to the roof. 1958‘W. Henry’ Seven Men at Mimbres Springs xiv. 164 Shortly, they heard his step on the stationhouse stairs, then saw his shadow rise out of the stairwell's greater blackness. 1977B. Bainbridge Injury Time xiii. 109 Lights burned on the stairwells of the flats and along the deserted balconies.
1834Dickens Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho. i, The very *stair-wires made your eyes wink, they were so glittering.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. iii. iii. 75 This [child] has beene some *staire-worke, some Trunke-worke, some behinde-doore-worke. 1903Daily Mail 11 Sept. 2/7 Many wives stay indoors more than they would through being tired by stair work.
▪ II. † stair, a. Obs. exc. dial.
In 4 stayre, 4–5 staire, 9 dial. stair, steer, etc.: (see Eng. Dial. Dict.)
[OE. *stǽᵹer (in comb. wiðer-stǽᵹre ‘prerupti’, Voc. c 1050 in Wr.-Wülcker 470):—OTeut. type *staiᵹrjo-, f. *staiᵹ-: see stair n.]
Steep.
a1175Twelfth Cent. Hom. (E.E.T.S.) 110 Þe wæȝ is swiðe heah & swiðe stæȝer þe lædeþ us to heofene. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1022 Þise twelue de-gres wern brode & stayre. a1400–50Wars Alex. 4828 Till he was comen till a cliffe at to þe cloudis semed, Þat was so staire & so stepe þe store me tellis. 16..As it befell one Saturday 26 in Percy Fol. MS. (1867) I. 244 As I went vp Kelsall wood, & vp that banke that was soe staire, I looked ouer my left sholder where I was wont to see my deere.
▪ III. † stair, v.1 Obs. rare.
[perh. f. stair n.]
1. trans. To ascend.
a1400–50Wars Alex. 3923 Stayrand on þe staunke þe stour to asaill. Ibid. 4834 With þat stairis he forth þe stye þat streȝt to þe est.
2. trans. To make in the form of stairs.
a1412Lydg. Two Merchants 635 Though to richesse ther be no grees i-steyred Tascenden vp.
▪ IV. † stair, v.2 Obs. rare. north. and Sc.
[? a. ON. *støyra (mod.Norw. støyra to prick), f. staur-r stake.]
trans. To thrust (a person) through; to thrust (a weapon, etc.) into a person or thing.
a1300Cursor M. 7667 Dauid him gleud wit his harp, Þe king þan hent a sper scarp To stair him thoru vnto þe wau. 1513Douglas æneis iii. iv. 56 All bair Full prevalie thair swerdis in thai stair. Ibid. xii. v. 197 On ane altar a birnand schyde hes hynt, And gan it rycht amyd his vissage stair, That blesit vp his lang berd of hair.
▪ V. stair
obs. form of star n.2 |