stage Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any distinct time period in a sequence of events
    phase.
    • we are in a transitional stage in which many former ideas must be revised or rejected
  2. noun a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series or especially in a process
    point; degree; level.
    • a remarkable degree of frankness
    • at what stage are the social sciences?
  3. noun a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by an audience
    • he clambered up onto the stage and got the actors to help him into the box
  4. noun the theater as a profession (usually `the stage')
    • an early movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the contemporary stage
  5. noun a large coach-and-four formerly used to carry passengers and mail on regular routes between towns
    stagecoach.
    • we went out of town together by stage about ten or twelve miles
  6. noun a section or portion of a journey or course
    leg.
    • then we embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise
  7. noun any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing something
    • All the world's a stage"--Shakespeare
    • it set the stage for peaceful negotiations
  8. noun a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examination
    microscope stage.
  9. verb perform (a play), especially on a stage
    represent; present.
    • we are going to stage `Othello'
  10. verb plan, organize, and carry out (an event)
    arrange.
    • the neighboring tribe staged an invasion

WordNet

Stage noun
Etymology
OF. estage, F. étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L. stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Static.
Definitions
  1. A floor or story of a house. Obs. Wyclif.
  2. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like.
  3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
  4. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
  5. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited. stars of stage and screen
    Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope.
    Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. C. Sprague.
  6. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or carrer; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs.
    When we are born, we cry that we are come To this stage of fools. Shak.
    Music and ethereal mirth Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring. Miton.
  7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope.
  8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
  9. A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of ten miles.
    A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road. Jeffrey.
    He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages. Smiles.
  10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result.
    Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society. Macaulay.
  11. A large vehicle running from station to station for the accomodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus. "A parcel sent you by the stage." Cowper.
    I went in the sixpenny stage. Swift.
  12. (Biol.) One of several marked phases or periods in the development and growth of many animals and plants; as, the larval stage; pupa stage; zoea stage.
Stage transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To exhibit upon a stage, or as upon a stage; to display publicly. Shak.

Webster 1913