stead

Less common meanings

4. 4
   locationnounarchaic

   A place or spot of any kind; a location.

   The three Princes ceased not travelling together for seven days, at the end of which time one said to other, "Let us separate and let each make search in a different stead, so haply shall we hit upon our need."

   1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night

   Note

   The plain sense of place is where the word starts: Old English stede goes back through a Germanic word for place to an older one for standing or location. Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590) uses it of one who dwells in no "certaine stead"; today it is a deliberate archaism, though James Meek can still reach for it in To Calais, In Ordinary Time (2019). Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • The place sense continues Old English stede, derived through Germanic from an older word meaning standing or position. en.wiktionary.org
   • The reconstructed Germanic ancestor means place or location. en.wiktionary.org
   • Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene first appeared in 1590, with Books I–III. en.wikisource.org
   • The poem uses certaine stead for a fixed dwelling place, describing Arthegall. gutenberg.org
   • James Meek wrote To Calais, In Ordinary Time, published in 2019. canongate.co.uk
   • To Calais, In Ordinary Time uses stead to mean a place or spot. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   verbobsolete

   To help, support, or benefit someone; to be of use.

   May you stead me? will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer?

   c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”

   Note

   The verb belongs to Shakespeare's English, where it is followed by the person helped: "May you stead me?" Bassanio asks Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. It can also stand alone, meaning simply to be of use, as when the garments and necessaries Gonzalo gave in The Tempest "have steaded much". Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Shakespeare uses the verb stead with the person helped as its object. gutenberg.org
   • Bassanio asks Shylock “May you stead me?” in The Merchant of Venice. gutenberg.org
   • In The Tempest, the garments and necessaries Gonzalo supplied are described as having “steaded much”, using the verb without an object. en.wikisource.org
6. 6
   romantic partnernouncolloquialSingaporecountable

   A person's boyfriend or girlfriend; one's partner in a romantic relationship.

   She asked him to be her stead after they had dated for a month.

   Her parents still don't know she has a stead, so she only meets him after tuition.

   UsageOften be my stead or have a stead.

   Similarpartner, boyfriend, girlfriend

   Note

   Singapore English clipped it from steady, a regular boyfriend or girlfriend. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Singapore English stead, meaning a romantic partner, is a clipping of steady. en.wiktionary.org
   • The noun steady means a regular boyfriend or girlfriend. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   verbobsolete

   To take or fill the place of something.
8. 8
   nounobsolete

   A place where people live, such as a settlement, town, or city.
9. 9
   bed framenounobsolete

   The frame on which a bed rests; a bedstead.

   The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.

   1693, John Dryden, Baucis and Philemon

   Note

   Only the compound bedstead keeps this sense in use; on its own the word is obsolete. Dryden's Baucis and Philemon names "the feet, the borders, and the stead" of a bed, the frame counted among its parts. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Dryden wrote the English version of Baucis and Philemon. en.wikisource.org
   • The poem lists the feet, borders, and stead of a bed; the quotation modernizes the spelling Sted. en.wikisource.org
   • Stead here means the bed frame. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    seatnounobsolete

    The place where a person normally sits or rests; a seat.

    There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads.

    1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island

    Note

    It survives only in old verse: in P. Fletcher's Purple Island (1633), shrieking satyrs "fill the people's emptie steads", the places left empty by the people who once filled them. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • P. Fletcher is the author of The Purple Island. pages.uoregon.edu
    • The Purple Island was first published in 1633. pages.uoregon.edu
    • The poem describes shrieking satyrs filling the people's empty steads; the quotation modernizes possessive punctuation. pages.uoregon.edu