staff

Less common meanings

5. 5
   music linesnouncountable or uncountable

   The set of five lines where music notes are written.

   Like the lines on writing paper, but for music instead of words.

   She drew notes on the staff during her piano lesson.

   Each line of the staff stands for a different musical sound.

   UsageAlso called a stave. More than one: staves or staffs.

   Similarstave

   Note
6. 6
   flag polenouncountable or uncountable

   A tall pole used to hold up and show a flag.

   The flag waved from a tall staff outside the school.

   They raised the new flag to the top of the staff at sunrise.

   Similarflagpole, pole

7. 7
   nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

   A group of lines in a poem or song that repeats the same pattern.

   Mr. Cowley had found out, that no kind of Staff is proper for an Heroick Poem; as being all too lirical:

   1697, Virgil, “To the Most Honourable John, Lord Marquess of Normanby, Earl of Mulgrave, &c. and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the…Here, Staff means a stanza, a group of lines in a poem.

   Similarstanza, verse

   Note
8. 8
   ladder rungnounarchaiccountable or uncountable

   One of the bars of a ladder that you step on.

   I ascend at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves.

   1739, John Campbell, The Travels and Adventures of Edward BevanHere, staves means the steps or rungs of a ladder.

   Note
9. 9
   noun

   A mix of plaster and fibers used to cover the outside of a building for a short time.
10. 10
    noun

    The small metal rod that a wheel inside a watch or clock turns on.
11. 11
    noun

    A rod or token that a train driver must carry to travel safely on a single track.

    The unusual rolling stock, the fare collection methods, and the exchange of train staffs make it quite clear that here is something out of the ordinary run of suburban electric lines.

    1951, R. K. Kirkland, “The Wimbledon and West Croydon Line of the Southern Region”Here, staffs means rods drivers hold that allow a train onto a single track.
12. 12
    noun

    A metal tool with a groove that guides the surgeon's knife when removing a stone from the bladder.