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staff

noun

a group of persons, as employees, charged with carrying out the work of an establishment or executing some undertaking.

a group of assistants to a manager, superintendent, or executive.

a member of a staff.

Military.

a body of officers without command authority, appointed to assist a commanding officer.

the parts of any army concerned with administrative matters, planning, etc., rather than with actual participation in combat.

those members of an organization serving only in an auxiliary or advisory capacity on a given project. Compare line¹ (def. 38).

EXPAND

a stick, pole, or rod for aid in walking or climbing, for use as a weapon, etc.

a rod or wand serving as a symbol of office or authority, as a crozier, baton, truncheon, or mace.

a pole on which a flag is hung or displayed.

something that supports or sustains.

10.

Also, stave. Music. a set of horizontal lines, now five in number, with the corresponding four spaces between them, on which music is written.

11.

Archaic. the shaft of a spear, lance, etc.

COLLAPSE

Protingent Staffing www.protingent.com Engineering Staffing Agency Temporary Staffing Agencies

adjective

12.

of or pertaining to a military or organizational staff: a staff officer; staff meetings.

13.

(of a professional person) employed on the staff of a corporation, publication, institution, or the like rather than being self-employed or practicing privately: a staff writer; staff physicians at the hospital.

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Staff is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to spend time idly; loaf.

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verb (used with object)

14.

to provide with a staff of assistants or workers: She staffed her office with excellent secretaries.

15.

to serve on the staff of.

16.

to send to a staff for study or further work (often followed by out): The White House will staff out the recommendations before making a decision.

verb (used without object)

17.

to hire employees, as for a new office or project (sometimes followed by up): Next month we'll begin staffing up for the reelection campaign.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English staf (noun), Old English stæf; cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Old Norse stafr staff, Sanskrit stabh- support

Related forms

staff·less, adjective

un·staffed, adjective

well-staffed, adjective

Usage note
See collective noun.

Example Sentences

All that sounds swell so long as you properly staff your place.

Accenture, a consulting firm whose staff often work at clients' offices, is a case in point.

Although there will be no staff members on site, the facility will be monitored around the clock.

EXPAND

All that sounds swell so long as you properly staff your place.

Accenture, a consulting firm whose staff often work at clients' offices, is a case in point.

Although there will be no staff members on site, the facility will be monitored around the clock.

Smithsonian magazine has a staff of editors and researchers.

With a few special stories, though, that feeling spreads to a magazine's whole editorial staff.

American firms are offering staff carrots to stay fit.

They blame staff shortages on inadequate government funding and a lack of young scientists who want to work in museums.

Children's activity and play corner, knowledgeable staff on both the natural history of the area and river ecology.

So before you buy, ask the nursery staff about the plant's size at maturity.

Given the attention he's brought to his university, he'll soon be asking for a bigger staff.

At night the park staff gathers young and old around a campfire for shamelessly corny sing-alongs.

Here's an adaptation that works well for a cook without a staff.

The biggest staff exodus comes after three years, once recruits have been certified as accountants.

Beef stroganoff, however, is uncomplicated enough to execute without a staff.

If you need to incentivise staff to hand things in then let them nominate a charity to which unclaimed goods are donated.

Our staff photographer loads these pocket-size drives with pics from the year, then sends them to friends and family.

In theory, they could be jailed because a staff member at a foreign subsidiary bribed an official without their knowledge.

The staff can tell you everything about picking seasons and modes of steeping.

Most venture firms employ a skeleton staff of in-house experts in areas such as recruiting and marketing to help advise start-ups.

Sunset staff has been enjoying leafing through it, seeing gardens we've written about in the magazine already.

Many medical staff are in essence unsackable civil servants.

Cuomo's concern about the state's fiscal condition is that he has allowed so little turnover in his staff at.

Staff employees are a wonderful resource for the academic willing to take the time to listen to them and get their advice.

In the past, many aid organizations have focused their recruiting efforts on finding staff perceived to be inured to hardship.

Research shows that the unvaccinated staff have a decent chance of getting sick.

The magazine's staff writer explained earlier this year how we'll all be eating jellyfish in the future.

After acceptance, the text will then be processed by staff copy editors and fact checkers.

Additionally, the medical staff has no involvement in discipline decisions made by detention personnel.

Reeling from a series of setbacks, the governor has replaced his top aide and several other staff members.

Treating staff members as fellow professionals extends beyond simply being civil.

Gu's staff of three seems to hold its collective breath.

Our knowledgeable staff can help you when replacing.

Even more curiously, the staff believed they genuinely were working for.

The administration, faculty, and staff are committed to attracting qualified candidates from underrepresented groups.

We will work with you to help promote it to your sales staff or provide links to our order form from your gift site.

Its staff hackers specialize in infiltrating hostile networks without leaving a trace.

Incompetent/obnoxious support staff can make your work life a daily, living hell.

There she built with her staff a preeminent collection and exhibition program of world renown.

We will work with you to help promote it to your sales staff or provide links to our order form from your gift.

The staff will serve to distribute your weight if you fall through.

Greene said the point was to account for staff not directly involved in instruction or research.

The report suggests that managers culled a share from the tips paid to waiting staff without those staff knowing.

The joker in the deck is a vervet monkey who also likes the fruit the staff puts out.

Staff supervision responsibilities include the recruitment, hiring, training and evaluation of all staff.

Nearly half of all start-ups do not expect to hire any staff at all.

The public relations staff wouldn't give me directions.

Prices are good, and the staff is great about being there when you need them, and staying out of the way when you don't.

At many small colleges, faculty and staff members are called on to perform multiple roles.

Staff numbers were cut dramatically, ending the old jobs-for-life culture.

Web staff get everything online and make sure it stays there.

Developing and sustaining a diverse faculty and staff further the university's educational mission.

The combined output of all these systems is far greater than the capacity of security staff to watch all the images.

Staff got four times as much as shareholders did in profits.

Any savings target will have to be met through staff cuts and efficiency savings.

The head teacher and her staff find it commonplace too-and no wonder.

But the staff are now worried about increasing threats to the magazine's treasured editorial.

Yet many pilot projects run so far have shown that junior staff can often be surprisingly good forecasters.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a composition of plaster and fibrous material used for a temporary finish and in ornamental work, as on exposition buildings.

Origin:
1890–95, Americanism; perhaps < German Stoff stuff

Link To staff

Collins

World English Dictionary

staff¹ (stɑːf)

—n , pl (for senses 1,3,4) pl (for senses 5-9) staffs, staffs, staves
1.	a group of people employed by a company, individual, etc, for executive, clerical, sales work, etc
2.	(modifier) attached to or provided for the staff of an establishment: a staff doctor
3.	the body of teachers or lecturers of an educational institution, as distinct from the students
4.	the officers appointed to assist a commander, service, or central headquarters organization in establishing policy, plans, etc
5.	a stick with some special use, such as a walking stick or an emblem of authority
6.	something that sustains or supports: bread is the staff of life
7.	a pole on which a flag is hung
8.	chiefly (Brit) Usual US name: rod a graduated rod used in surveying, esp for sighting to with a levelling instrument
9.	music Also called: stave
	a. the system of horizontal lines grouped into sets of five (four in the case of plainsong) upon which music is written. The spaces between them are also used, being employed in conjunction with a clef in order to give a graphic indication of pitch
	b. any set of five lines in this system together with its clef: the treble staff

—vb
10.	(tr) to provide with a staff

[Old English stæf; related to Old Frisian stef, Old Saxon staf, German Stab, Old Norse stafr, Gothic Stafs; see stave]

staff² (stɑːf)

—n
	(US) a mixture of plaster and hair used to cover the external surface of temporary structures and for decoration

[C19: of unknown 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

staff

O.E. stæf "walking stick, strong pole used for carrying, rod used as a weapon" (also, in plural, "letter, character, writing," cf. stæfcræft "grammar"), from P.Gmc. *stabaz (cf. O.S. staf, O.N. stafr, O.Fris. stef, M.L.G., M.Du. staf, O.H.G. stab, Ger. Stab, Goth. *stafs "element;"

EXPAND

M.Du. stapel "pillar, foundation"), from PIE base *stebh- "post, stem, to support, place firmly on, fasten" (cf. O.Lith. stabas "idol," Lith. stebas "staff, pillar;" O.C.S. stoboru "pillar;" Skt. stabhnati "supports;" Gk. stephein "to tie around, encircle, wreathe," staphyle "grapevine, bunch of grapes;" O.E. stapol "post, pillar"). Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" is attested from 1702, apparently from Ger., from the notion of the "baton" that is a badge of office or authority (a sense attested in Eng. from 1535). Meaning "group of employees (as at an office or hospital)" is first found 1837. The verb meaning "to provide with a staff of assistants" is from 1859. Staff of life "bread" is from the Biblical phrase "to break the staff of bread" (Lev. xxvi.26), transl. Heb. matteh lekhem.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

staff (stāf)
n.

A specific group of workers.
See director.

v. staffed, staff·ing, staffs

To provide with a staff of workers or assistants.
To serve on the staff of.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

staff

in the notation of Western music, five parallel horizontal lines that, with a clef, indicate the pitch of musical notes. The invention of the staff is traditionally ascribed to Guido d'Arezzo in about the year 1000, although there are earlier manuscripts in which neumes (signs from which musical notes evolved) are arranged around one or two lines in order to orient the singer. Guido used three or four lines of different colours. A four-line staff is still used to notate plainchant.

Learn more about staff with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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"Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd s bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine."

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