stage

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a section or portion of a journey or course

   Then we embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise.

2. 2
   noun

   a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by an audience

   I clambered up onto the stage and got the actors to help me into the box.

3. 3
   noun

   a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examination

   I placed the slide onto the stage of the microscope.

4. 4
   noun

   a large coach-and-four formerly used to carry passengers and mail on regular routes between towns

   We went out of town together by stage about ten or twelve miles.

5. 5
   noun

   the theater as a profession, usually 'the stage'

   An early movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the contemporary stage.

6. 6
   noun

   any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing something

   The city street is the stage for many arguments.

7. 7
   noun

   a specific identifiable position in a continuum, series, or especially in a process

   The fourth stage in the manufacture of lamps requires argon.

8. 8
   noun

   any distinct time period in a sequence of events

   We are in a transitional stage in which many former ideas must be revised or rejected.

Etymology

From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.