stole

Pluralstoles

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense of steal.

   She stole a quick glance at him across the crowded room.

   Burglars stole jewelry and cash during the late-night break-in.

   Note

   One past tense serves every meaning of steal: thieves stole cash, a performer stole the show, someone stole a glance, a figure stole away into the dark. In standard English it is not the participle. After have or be the form is stolen (the cash was stolen). The church vestment and the botanical runner share the spelling but are separate words, both from Latin.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A long scarf-like wrap, often made of fur, worn across the shoulders or around the neck.

   The actress arrived in a satin gown with a mink stole draped over one arm.

   Guests at the winter gala wore velvet stoles against the chill.

   Similarwrap, shawl, scarf, tippet

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A decorated band worn across the back of the neck with each end hanging down the chest, used in church services or as part of graduation dress.

   The deacon's purple stole marked the season of Lent.

   Graduates from the honors program wore gold stoles at commencement.

   Similarsash, scarf

   Note

   The word settled on this band only late. Greek stolē could mean a garment or equipment in general, and it passed through Latin stola into Old English stole. The band marks office. That is why Xavier Herbert's Capricornia (1938) has a man in sou'wester and oilskin open his coat "so that God might see the stole." Latin stola also survives in English as a doublet, and stall is a distant relative.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A stolon, a horizontal stem that grows along the surface of the ground and takes root to produce new plants.

   Each stole from the strawberry bed rooted a few inches from the parent plant.

   Creeping buttercup spreads across lawns by long stoles that root wherever they touch bare soil.

   Similarstolon, runner

   Note

   A botanist's synonym with its own ancestry: Latin stolō, the same word that gives stolon. It shares nothing but spelling with the fur wrap and the vestment. Like any stolon, a stole runs along the surface and roots at its nodes or tip. A rhizome also spreads a plant sideways, but it travels underground. The plural is stoles.

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