staffs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of staff.

   The hospital's medical and nursing staffs coordinated their schedules carefully.

   Several rival newspapers trimmed their editorial staffs last year.

   Note

   One spelling serves several unrelated plurals: walking sticks, the lined grids of written music, badges of office, flagpoles, and whole bodies of employees. In the workplace meaning, staffs counts separate teams, such as a hospital's nursing and medical staffs, not individual workers. The plaster-and-fiber wall covering is a mass noun and takes no plural at all. For music, stave is another name for the same set of lines.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of staff.

   The company staffs its warehouses with seasonal workers during the holidays.

   A local firm staffs the festival with experienced security personnel.

   Note

   The verb is transitive, so this form always needs an object: a firm staffs a festival, a warehouse, an office. The people supplied usually follow with, as in staffs its warehouses with seasonal workers. It looks identical to the noun plural, and position tells them apart. After a singular subject it is the verb. After the or a possessive it is the noun.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2