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View synonyms for stead

stead

[ sted ]

noun

  1. the place of a person or thing as occupied by a successor or substitute:

    The nephew of the queen came in her stead.

  2. Obsolete. a place or locality.


verb (used with object)

  1. to be of service, advantage, or avail to.

Stead

1

/ stɛd /

noun

  1. SteadChristina (Ellen)19021983FAustralianWRITING: novelist Christina ( Ellen ). 1902–83, Australian novelist. Her works include Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934), The Man who Loved Children (1940), and Cotters' England (1966)


stead

2

/ stɛd /

noun

  1. rare.
    preceded by in the place, function, or position that should be taken by another

    to come in someone's stead

  2. stand someone in good stead
    stand someone in good stead to be useful or of good service to (someone)

verb

  1. archaic.
    tr to help or benefit

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Word History and Origins

Origin of stead1

before 900; (noun) Middle English, Old English stede; cognate with German Stätte place; akin to German Stadt, Old Norse stathr, Gothic staths, Greek stásis ( stasis ); (v.) Middle English steden, derivative of the noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of stead1

Old English stede ; related to Old Norse stathr place, Old High German stat place, Latin statiō a standing, statim immediately

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. stand in good stead, to be useful to, especially in a critical situation:

    Your experience will stand you in good stead.

More idioms and phrases containing stead

see in someone's shoes (stead) ; stand in good stead . Also see under instead .

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Example Sentences

Water Authority board members can designate other members agency to vote in their stead – as a proxy – if they’re absent.

In 2020, Spears requested through her lawyer that Montgomery be made conservator in her father’s stead, and that a bank be appointed as a conservator of her estate.

Miss Manners recommends that next time, you helpfully suggest a ride-share app — or another hapless relative — in your stead.

Each of the 24 directors can designate another member agency to vote in its stead at the Water Authority board meetings if they can’t make it.

A professional conservator has acted in his stead in the meantime.

When Adele won Best Solo Pop Performance, Sediuk stormed the stage, attempting to accept the award in Adele's stead.

Rather than saying a prayer, he asked those with ears to hear to say a prayer in his stead.

In his stead today is Mohamed Morsi, a member of a party whose slogan is “Islam is the solution.”

But would that modus operandi of old hold him in good stead with the “three-ring policy circus” he faces?

In the world of endless second chances, he will have to revive that plan or offer another one in its stead.

Certainly in that year I learned much and acquired from my chief business habits which have stood me in good stead since.

Nor would it be just for you to forgive him because another son of yours was willing to be punished in his stead.

Organisation was his first work, and his former experience of irregular warfare in Poland stood him in good stead.

He did come,—a big, gran' man, wid a look which made me glad Miss Dory was in heaven 'stead of livin' wid him.

Thus, though King James be at last excluded, his Subjects reign in his stead.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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