stale
/steɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.43 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; clichéd, hackneyed, dated.
adj
Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.
adj
Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.
adj
Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.
adj
Of data: out of date; not synchronized with the newest copy.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: gone bad, spoiled; see also Thesaurus:rotten"
- "Stale as breed or drinke is, rassis. Stale as meate is that begynneth to savoure, viel."
- "New freshe blood to ouersprinkle their stale mete that it may seme...newly kylled."
- "To her surprise, Abe did not come to collect her for the usual morning inhabitation session with Azure. She did not see him until almost noon, when he personally delivered lunch to her tent. Another stale roll and cup of water sat on the tray he carried. Abe hung his head, as abashed as Honorato had been. “This is all I could sneak in for now. I'll try to get more later.”"
- "Better is...be it new or stale, A harmelesse lie, than a harmefull true tale."
- "Doist thou smyle to reade this stale and beggarlye stuffe."
Etymology
From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“fixed position, place”), but probably originally from Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): compare West Flemish stel in the same sense for ‘beer’ and ‘urine’.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: stale, estal, *stāną, *stel-, stalu, *stalō
Usage
Inflected Forms
staler (comparative)
more stale (comparative)
stalest (superlative)
most stale (superlative)
stales (plural)
stales (present, singular)
staling (participle, present)
staled (participle, past)
staled (past)
stele (alternative)
steal (alternative)
steel (alternative)