stake

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A piece of wood or metal pointed at one end for driving into the ground as a marker, fence pole, or tent peg.
2. n. A vertical post to which an offender is bound for execution by burning.
3. n. Execution by burning. Used with the: condemned to the stake.
4. n. A vertical post secured in a socket at the edge of a platform, as on a truck bed, to help retain the load.
5. n. Mormon Church A territorial division consisting of a group of wards under the jurisdiction of a president.
6. n. Sports & Games Money or property risked in a wager or gambling game. Often used in the plural. See Synonyms at bet.
7. n. Sports & Games The prize awarded the winner of a contest or race.
8. n. Sports & Games A race offering a prize to the winner, especially a horserace in which the prize consists of money contributed equally by the horse owners.
9. n. A share or an interest in an enterprise, especially a financial share.
10. n. Personal interest or involvement: a stake in her children's future.
11. n. A grubstake.
12. v. To mark the location or limits of with or as if with stakes: stake out a claim.
13. v. To claim as one's own: staked out a place for herself in industry.
14. v. To fasten, secure, or support with a stake or stakes.
15. v. To tether or tie to a stake.
16. v. To gamble or risk; hazard.
17. v. To provide working capital for; finance.
18. stake out To assign (a police officer, for example) to an area to conduct surveillance.
19. stake out To keep under surveillance.
20. idiom. at stake At risk; in question.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A stick of wood sharpened at one end and set in the ground, or prepared to be set in the ground, as part of a fence, as a boundary-mark, as a post to tether an animal to, or as a support for something, as a hedge, a vine, a tent, or a fishing-net.
2. n. Specifically The post to which a person condemned to death by burning is bound: as, condemned to the stake; burned at the stake; also, a post to which a bear to be baited is tied.
3. n. In leather manufacturing, a post on which a skin is stretched for currying or graining.
4. n. A vertical bar fixed in a socket or in staples on the edge of the bed of a platform railway-car or of a vehicle, to secure the load from rolling off, or, when a loose substance, as gravel, etc., is carried, to hold in place boards which retain the load.
5. n. A small anvil used for working in thin metal, as by tinsmiths: it appears to be so called because stuck into the bench by a sharp vertical prop pointed at the end.
6. To fasten to a stake; tether; also, to impale.
7. To support with stakes; provide with supporting stakes or poles: as, to stake vines.
8. To defend, barricade, or bar with stakes or piles.
9. To divide or lay off and mark with stakes or posts: with out or off: as, to stake off a site for a school-house; to stake out oyster-beds.
10. To stretch, scrape, and smooth (skins) by friction against the blunt edge of a semicircular knife fixed to the top of a short beam or post set upright.
11. n. That which is placed at hazard as a wager; the sum of money or other valuable consideration which is deposited as a pledge or wager to be lost or won according to the issue of a contest or contingency.
12. n. The prize in a contest of strength, skill, speed, or the like.
13. n. An interest; something to gain or lose.
14. n. The state of being laid or pledged as a wager; the state of being at hazard or in peril: preceded by at: as, his honor is at stake.
15. n. The see or jurisdiction of a Mormon bishop.
16. To wager; put at hazard or risk upon a future contingency; venture.
17. n. A Middle English form of stack.
18. n. The ling.
19. n. The post or arm which carries the fixed or stationary jaw of a riveting-machine, and holds up the rivet against the pressure which upsets the metal and forms the head.

Wiktionary

1. n. A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a support or stay; as, a stake to support vines, fences, hedges, etc.
2. n. A slender rod, or stick, to be driven into the ground as a mark
3. n. A stick inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, a flat car, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.
4. n. with definite article The piece of timber to which a martyr was affixed to be burned.
5. n. A share or interest in a business or a given situation (in the sense "stake a claim").
6. n. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching upon, etc.
7. n. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
8. n. Mormonism A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.
9. v. transitive To fasten, support, or defend with stakes; as, to stake vines or plants.
10. v. transitive To pierce or wound with a stake.
11. v. transitive To put at hazard upon the issue of competition, or upon a future contingency; to wager; to pledge.
12. v. transitive, poker To provide another with money in order to play.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A piece of wood, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a support or stay
2. n. A stick inserted upright in a loop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, a flat car, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.
3. n. The piece of timber to which a martyr was affixed to be burned; hence, martyrdom by fire.
4. n. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, -- used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching upon, etc.
5. n. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
6. n. (Mormon Ch.) A territorial division; -- called also stake of Zion.
7. v. To fasten, support, or defend with stakes.
8. v. To mark the limits of by stakes; -- with out.
9. v. To put at hazard upon the issue of competition, or upon a future contingency; to wager; to pledge.
10. v. To pierce or wound with a stake.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. mark with a stake
2. n. instrument of execution consisting of a vertical post that a victim is tied to for burning
3. n. the money risked on a gamble
4. v. place a bet on
5. v. put at risk
6. v. tie or fasten to a stake
7. n. a strong wooden or metal post with a point at one end so it can be driven into the ground
8. n. (law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something
9. n. a pole or stake set up to mark something (as the start or end of a race track)
10. v. kill by piercing with a spear or sharp pole