Pull stakes

noun

a stick or post pointed at one end for driving into the ground as a boundary mark, part of a fence, support for a plant, etc.

a post to which a person is bound for execution, usually by burning.

the stake, the punishment of death by burning: Joan of Arc was sentenced to the stake.

one of a number of vertical posts fitting into sockets or staples on the edge of the platform of a truck or other vehicle, as to retain the load.

Mormon Church. a division of ecclesiastical territory, consisting of a number of wards presided over by a president and two counselors.

sett ( def 2 ).

Relevant Questions

What Is Pull Up Stakes?

verb (used with object)

to mark with or as if with stakes (often followed by off or out ): We staked out the boundaries of the garden.

to possess, claim, or reserve a share of (land, profit, glory, etc.) as if by marking or bounding with stakes (usually followed by out or off ): I'm staking out ten percent of the profit for myself.

to separate or close off by a barrier of stakes.

10.

to support with a stake or stakes, as a plant: to stake tomato vines.

11.

to tether or secure to a stake, as an animal: They staked the goat in the back yard.

12.

to fasten with a stake or stakes.

00:10

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an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

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Verb phrases

13.

stake out,

to keep (a suspect) under police surveillance.

to appoint (a police officer) to maintain constant watch over a suspect or place.

Idioms

14.

pull up stakes, Informal. to leave one's job, place of residence, etc.; move: They pulled up stakes and went to California.

Origin:
before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English staca pin; cognate with Dutch staak, German Stake, Old Norse -staki (in lȳsistaki candlestick); akin to stick¹; (v.) Middle English staken to mark (land) with stakes, derivative of the noun

Synonyms
1. pale, picket, pike.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To pull stakes

Collins

World English Dictionary

stake¹ (steɪk)

—n
1.	a stick or metal bar driven into the ground as a marker, part of a fence, support for a plant, etc
2.	one of a number of vertical posts that fit into sockets around a flat truck or railway wagon to hold the load in place
3.	a method or the practice of executing a person by binding him to a stake in the centre of a pile of wood that is then set on fire
4.	Mormon Church an administrative district consisting of a group of wards under the jurisdiction of a president
5.	pull up stakes to leave one's home or temporary resting place and move on

—vb (often foll by out or off)
6.	to tie, fasten, or tether with or to a stake
7.	to fence or surround with stakes
8.	(often foll by out) to lay (a claim) to land, rights, etc
9.	to support with a stake

[Old English staca pin; related to Old Frisian staka, Old High German stehho, Old Norse stjaki; see stick¹]

stake² (steɪk)

—n
1.	the money or valuables that a player must hazard in order to buy into a gambling game or make a bet
2.	an interest, often financial, held in something: a stake in the company's future
3.	(often plural) the money that a player has available for gambling
4.	(often plural) a prize in a race, etc, esp one made up of contributions from contestants or owners
5.	(plural) horse racing a race in which all owners of competing horses contribute to the prize money
6.	informal (US), (Canadian) short for grubstake
7.	at stake at risk: two lives are at stake
8.	raise the stakes
	a. to increase the amount of money or valuables hazarded in a gambling game
	b. to increase the costs, risks, or considerations involved in taking an action or reaching a conclusion: the Libyan allegations raised the stakes in the propaganda war between Libya and the United States

—vb
9.	to hazard (money, etc) on a result
10.	to invest in or support by supplying with money, etc: to stake a business enterprise

[C16: of uncertain origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

stake

"pointed stick or post," O.E. staca, from P.Gmc. *stakon (cf. O.N. stiaki, Du. staak, Ger. stake), from PIE base *steg- "pole, stick." The Gmc. word has been borrowed in Sp. (estaca), O.Fr. (estaque), and It. stacca) and was borrowed back as attach. Meaning "post upon which

persons were bound for death by burning" is recorded from c.1200. Stake-body as a type of truck is attested from 1907.

stake

early 14c., "to mark (land) with stakes," from stake (n.). Hence, to stake a claim (1857). Meaning "to risk, wager" is attested from 1520s, probably from notion of "post on which a gambling wager was placed," though Weekley suggests "there is a tinge of the burning or baiting

metaphor" in this usage. Noun meaning "that which is placed at hazard" is recorded from 1530s. Plural stakes, as in horse racing, first recorded 1690s (cf. sweepstakes). To have a stake in is recorded from 1784. Meaning "to maintain surveilance" (usually stake out) is first recorded 1942, Amer.Eng. colloquial, probably form earlier sense of "mark off territory."

Slang Dictionary

stake (so/sth) definition

tv.
to position a person so that someone or something can be observed or followed. : Marlowe staked out the apartment building and watched patiently for an hour.
tv.
to position a person to observe someone or something. : We staked out two men to keep watch.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"The nearest beach to us on the other side, whither we looked, due east, was on the coast of Galicia, in Spain, whose capital is Santiago, though by old poets' reckoning it should have been Atlantis or the Hesperides; but heaven is found to be farther west now.... A little south of east was Palos, where Columbus weighed anchor, and farther yet the pillars which Hercules set up; concerning which when we inquired at the top of our voices what was written on them,—for we had the morning sun in our faces, and could not see distinctly,—the inhabitants shouted Ne plus ultra (no more beyond), but the wind bore to us the truth only, plus ultra (more beyond), and over the Bay westward was echoed ultra (beyond). We spoke to them through the surf about the Far West, the true Hesperia, heos peras or end of the day, the This Side Sundown, where the sun was extinguished in the Pacific, and we advised them to pull up stakes and plant those pillars of theirs on the shore of California, whither all our folks were gone,—the only ne plus ultra now. Whereat they looked crestfallen on their cliffs, for we had taken the wind out of all their sails."

-Henry David Thoreau

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