stakes

1. 1
   nounplural

   The risks involved in a situation: what stands to be won or lost by the outcome.

   Like a high climb without a rope: how far you might fall measures how much is on the line.

   Because so many jobs depended on the decision, the stakes were enormous.

   Every late goal raised the stakes for both teams.

   Similarrisks

   Note

   The gambler's pool turned into a measure of consequence, and like the betting money it stays plural. It pairs naturally with high, too high and raised, and it frames an argument: Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 "Daisy" ad opens "These are the stakes" and closes "The stakes are too high for you to stay home." Officials and judges use it too, weighing a decision "given the stakes."

2. 2
   nouncountableplural

   The money risked or bet on the outcome of a game, race, or other wager.

   The two friends agreed to double their stakes for the last round of poker.

   She gathered her stakes from the felt after winning the pot.

   Similarbets, wagers

   Note

   A plural that does the work of a single pool: the players' combined money is spoken of as the stakes, and the verb agrees in the plural. The stakes are doubled, raised or collected. Treat it as a fixed plural form rather than a count of separate bets, even when only one sum of money changes hands.

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of stake.

   Surveyors marked each corner of the plot with iron stakes.

   Several investors increased their stakes in the company last quarter.

   Note

   One spelling serves every kind of stake: the pointed posts that mark a plot or hold a cart's load, the croquet finishing peg, the shares investors hold, the sums laid down as a pledge. The execution sense resists pluralizing, because it travels with the definite article: one goes to the stake. Money on the table or what hangs on an outcome belongs to the gambling plural instead.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of stake.

   The gambler stakes a week's wages on a single throw of the dice.

   Each candidate stakes a claim to the disputed border region.

   Note

   The verb wears the same spelling as the plural noun, so only the sentence tells them apart: she stakes the tomatoes, but the tomato stakes lean. Its range is wide. Someone who stakes something may fasten or mark it with posts, pierce it, risk money on an outcome, or bankroll another person's venture. Newest of all, they may lock up cryptocurrency to take part in proof-of-stake verification.

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