# staff

Pronunciation: US say "STAF" /stæf/; UK say "STAHF" /stɑːf/

## Noun

1. The employees of a business or organization, considered as a group.
   - Simple: All the people who work for a business or organization.
   - _The clinic hired additional staff to handle the winter rush._
   - _Most of the museum's staff have worked there for over a decade._
3. The group of officers attached to an army or its commander, responsible for planning and carrying the commander's orders into effect.
   - Simple: The group of officers who help an army leader plan and pass on orders.
   - _The colonel served on the division staff before taking a field command._
   - _The general's staff spent the night drawing up plans for the river crossing._
4. A long, strong stick or rod, used as a support when walking or carried as a symbol of authority.
   - Simple: A long, strong stick used to help you walk, or carried to show power or rank.
   - _The shepherd carried a wooden staff across the high pasture._
   - _Hikers in the region still cut staves from ash saplings._
5. A stave; the framework of horizontal lines, one above another, used for writing down musical notes.
   - Simple: The set of five lines where music notes are written.
   - _The melody sits high on the staff, well above middle C._
   - _Piano music uses two staves joined by a brace._
6. A pole on which a flag is raised and displayed.
   - Simple: A tall pole used to hold up and show a flag.
   - _Marines lowered the colors slowly down the staff at dusk._
   - _A bronze eagle topped the staff above the courthouse._

## Verb

2. To supply a business, organization, or operation with employees or workers.
   - Simple: To give a business or group the workers it needs.
   - _The agency staffs the call center with temporary workers during the holidays._
   - _Retired teachers staff the tutoring program three evenings a week._

## Noun

7. A group of verses forming a unit that repeats its pattern through a poem or song; a stanza. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A group of lines in a poem or song that repeats the same pattern.
8. A rung of a ladder; one of the crosspieces that serve as steps. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: One of the bars of a ladder that you step on.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A mixture of plaster and fiber used as a temporary exterior covering for buildings.
- (noun) An arbor, or axle, on which a wheel or pinion of a watch turns.
- (noun) A physical token, usually a rod, whose possession authorizes a train to travel over a single-track section between two points.
- (noun) A grooved instrument that directs the gorget, or knife, in the operation of cutting a stone from the bladder.

## Origin

From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf ("staff, stick", also "letter of the alphabet"), from Proto-Germanic *stabaz, related to Dutch staf and German Stab. The sense of officers serving a commander, recorded from 1702, probably owes something to German Stab.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/staff (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).