staff

Multiple Entries:
  staff    stave  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
staff1

▶noun

• 1 [treated as sing. or pl.] the employees of a particular organization.

  ■ a group of officers assisting an officer in command of an army formation or administration headquarters.

  ■ (usu. Staff) short for staff sergeant.

• 2 a long stick used as a support or weapon.

  ■ a rod or sceptre held as a sign of office or authority.

  ■ Surveying a rod for measuring distances or heights.

• 3 Brit. a spindle in a watch.

• 4 Music another term for stave (sense 2 of the noun).

• 5 Brit. a token in the form of a rod given to a train driver as authority to proceed over a single-track line.

▶verb provide with staff.

– phrases
the staff of life bread or another staple food.

– origin OE stæf (in sense 2 of the noun), of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
staff2

▶noun a mixture of plaster of Paris, cement, etc. used for temporary building work.

– origin C19: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
stave/steɪv/

▶noun

• 1 a vertical wooden post or plank in a building or other structure.

  ■ any of the lengths of wood fixed side by side to make a barrel, bucket, etc.

  ■ a strong wooden stick or iron pole used as a weapon.

• 2 (also staff) Music a set of five parallel lines on or between any of which a note is written to indicate its pitch.

• 3 a verse or stanza of a poem.

▶verb

• 1 (past and past part. staved or stove) (stave something in) break something by forcing it inwards or piercing it roughly with a hole.

• 2 (past and past part. staved) (stave something off) avert or delay something bad or dangerous.

– origin ME: back-form. from staves, var. pl. form of staff1.