stew

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
stew1

▶noun

• 1 a dish of meat and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan.

• 2 informal a state of anxiety or agitation.

• 3 archaic a public room used for hot steam baths.

  ■ a brothel.

▶verb

• 1 cook or be cooked slowly in liquid in a closed dish or pan.

  ■ Brit. (of tea) become strong and bitter with prolonged brewing.

• 2 informal remain in a heated or stifling atmosphere.

  ■ remain in an anxious or agitated state.

– phrases
stew in one's own juice informal be left to suffer the consequences of one's own actions.

– origin ME: from OFr. estuve (rel. to estuver ‘heat in steam’), prob. based on Gk tuphos ‘smoke, steam’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
stew2

▶noun Brit.

• 1 a pond or large tank for keeping fish for eating.

• 2 an artificial oyster bed.

– origin ME: from OFr. estui, from estoier ‘confine’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
stew3

▶noun N. Amer. informal an air steward or stewardess.

– origin 1970s: abbrev.