stale

1
[ steyl ]
See synonyms for stale on Thesaurus.com
adjective,stal·er, stal·est.
  1. not fresh; vapid or flat, as beverages; dry or hardened, as bread.

  2. musty; stagnant: stale air.

  1. having lost novelty or interest; hackneyed; trite: a stale joke.

  2. having lost freshness, vigor, quick intelligence, initiative, or the like, as from overstrain, boredom, or surfeit: He had grown stale on the job and needed a long vacation.

  3. Law. having lost force or effectiveness through absence of action, as a claim.

verb (used with or without object),staled, stal·ing.
  1. to make or become stale.

Origin of stale

1
1250–1300; Middle English; akin to Middle Dutch stel in same sense; perhaps akin to stand or to stale2

Other words for stale

Opposites for stale

Other words from stale

  • stalely, adverb
  • staleness, noun

Other definitions for stale (2 of 2)

stale2
[ steyl ]

verb (used without object),staled, stal·ing.
  1. (of livestock, especially horses) to urinate.

Origin of stale

2
1400–50; late Middle English stalen to urinate; cognate with German stallen,Danish stalle,Norwegian, Swedish stalla

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use stale in a sentence

  • The trick that he hit upon was the stalest, the most threadbare, the most commonplace and vulgar that one can imagine.

    Overland | John William De Forest
  • Bread and water—both of the stalest—constituted poor Mole's only fare, and his lodging was literally "on the cold, cold ground."

  • Come, now, Ned; you know as well as I do that that is one of the stalest commonplaces going.

    Cashel Byron's Profession | George Bernard Shaw
  • If it ever had been, its essence was long since exhaled: there was nothing in his whole nature now but the stalest dregs, surely?

  • The subject of that man's alleged eccentricities invariably brought out a flood of the town's stalest anecdotes.

    The Imitator | Percival Pollard

British Dictionary definitions for stale (1 of 2)

stale1

/ (steɪl) /


adjective
  1. (esp of food) hard, musty, or dry from being kept too long

  2. (of beer, etc) flat and tasteless from being kept open too long

  1. (of air) stagnant; foul

  2. uninteresting from overuse; hackneyed: stale clichés

  3. no longer new: stale news

  4. lacking in energy or ideas through overwork or lack of variety

  5. banking (of a cheque) not negotiable by a bank as a result of not having been presented within six months of being written

  6. law (of a claim, etc) having lost its effectiveness or force, as by failure to act or by the lapse of time

verb
  1. to make or become stale

Origin of stale

1
C13 (originally applied to liquor in the sense: well matured): probably via Norman French from Old French estale (unattested) motionless, of Frankish origin; related to stall 1, install

Derived forms of stale

  • stalely, adverb
  • staleness, noun

British Dictionary definitions for stale (2 of 2)

stale2

/ (steɪl) /


verb
  1. (intr) (of livestock) to urinate

noun
  1. the urine of horses or cattle

Origin of stale

2
C15: perhaps from Old French estaler to stand in one position; see stall 1; compare Middle Low German stallen to urinate, Greek stalassein to drip

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012