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stale
1[ steyl ]
adjective
- not fresh; vapid or flat, as beverages; dry or hardened, as bread.
Synonyms: insipid, sour, tasteless, hard
Antonyms: fresh
- musty; stagnant:
stale air.
- having lost novelty or interest; hackneyed; trite:
a stale joke.
Synonyms: uninteresting, common, old, stereotyped
- 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.
- Law. having lost force or effectiveness through absence of action, as a claim.
verb (used with or without object)
- to make or become stale.
stale
2[ steyl ]
verb (used without object)
- (of livestock, especially horses) to urinate.
stale
1/ steɪl /
verb
- intr (of livestock) to urinate
noun
- the urine of horses or cattle
stale
2/ steɪl /
adjective
- (esp of food) hard, musty, or dry from being kept too long
- (of beer, etc) flat and tasteless from being kept open too long
- (of air) stagnant; foul
- uninteresting from overuse; hackneyed
stale clichés
- no longer new
stale news
- lacking in energy or ideas through overwork or lack of variety
- banking (of a cheque) not negotiable by a bank as a result of not having been presented within six months of being written
- law (of a claim, etc) having lost its effectiveness or force, as by failure to act or by the lapse of time
verb
- to make or become stale
Derived Forms
- ˈstaleness, noun
- ˈstalely, adverb
Other Words From
- stalely adverb
- staleness noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of stale1
Origin of stale2
Word History and Origins
Origin of stale1
Origin of stale2
Example Sentences
And just as with no-fault divorce, it’s not necessary to place blame when relationships go stale.
Recently, the evil culprit was a stale pan dulce at a friend’s birthday party in New York.
I think that babka spent the holidays going stale in the mailroom, being picked off by random employees or nibbled by mice.
Everywhere I’d normally go was closed except for a chain drug store, where I purchased a pint of coffee Häagen-Dazs and a bag of stale chocolate chips.
I’ve gotten some slightly stale baguettes which made for great baked French toast.
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