stable
/ˈsteɪ.bəl/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms stables stabling stabled stabler stablest
- noun A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses. “There were stalls for fourteen horses in the squire's stables.”
- noun (metonymic) All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
- noun (Scotland) A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
- noun (sumo) An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.
- noun (professional wrestling) A group of wrestlers who support each other within a wrestling storyline.
- noun (slang) A group of prostitutes managed by one pimp.
- noun A group of people who are looked after, mentored, considered or trained in one place or for a particular purpose or profession.
- noun A coherent or consistent set of things (typically abstract) available or presented; array.
- verb (transitive) To put or keep (an animal) in a stable.
- verb (intransitive) To dwell in a stable.
- verb (rail transport, transitive) To park (a rail vehicle).
- adjective Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed. “He was in a stable relationship.”
- adjective (computing) Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version. “You should download the 1.9 version of that video editing software: it is the latest stable version. The newer beta version has some bugs.”
- adjective (computing theory, of a storing algorithm) That maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.
- adjective (commutative algebra, of a filtration (M_n) of a module M over a ring with respect to an ideal (here I but often a,m,p etc.) of that ring) Eventually satisfying the identity IM_n=M_n+1.
Synonyms
horsebarn heya string fixed unvarying stalls horse barn static unchanging
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable, from Latin stab(u)lum.
From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable, from Latin stab(u)lum.
From Middle English stable, from Anglo-Norman stable, stabel, from Latin stabilis (“firm, steadfast”) (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”)). Displaced native Old English staþolfæst.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Firmly established; not easily moved, shaken, or overthrown; fixed; as, a stable government.
- adjective Steady in purpose; constant; firm in resolution; not easily diverted from a purpose; not fickle or wavering; as, a man of stable character.
- verb To fix; to establish. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A house, shed, or building, for beasts to lodge and feed in; esp., a building or apartment with stalls, for horses; as, a horse stable; a cow stable. Milton. Stable fly (Zoöl.), a common dipterous fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) which is abundant about stables and often enters dwellings, especially in autumn. These files, unlike the common house files, which they resemble, bite severely, and are troublesome to horses and cattle.
Etymology [OE. estable, F. stable, fr. L. stabilis, fr. stare to stand. See Stand, v. i. and cf. Establish.]
Etymology [OF. estable, F. étable, from L. stabulum, fr. stare to stand. See Stand, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stable”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details