sty

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“
A residence in the sty is apt to leave a stain which I have not found on him, though I have looked for it The eyes of the two women met, and, though nothing more was said, each realized that the other was perplexed by the same question, while the girl was astonished to find her vague suspicions shared.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun An enclosure for swine.
  2. noun A filthy place.
  3. transitive and intransitive verb To shut up in or live in a sty.
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Examples (50)

  • You see another pig in a commonplace sty, and you never dream of pathos; but old Joan wipes a tear from her eye with her apron when she remembers how that pig came into her possession. —  Mushrooms on the Moor
  • Master Pig will be obliged to go into the sty, and very likely get the whip for his pains; like a wayward child that gets chid for disobedience. —  The Royal Picture Alphabet
  • --_Daily Mail Does the writer delicately hesitate to call a sty a sty, or has the internment of the food-hog really begun Lord Robert Cecil concluded: 'There is a well-known French proverb, Que; messieurs, les assassins commencement--let the murderers begin.'" —  Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, May 23, 1917
  • A residence in the sty is apt to leave a stain which I have not found on him, though I have looked for it The eyes of the two women met, and, though nothing more was said, each realized that the other was perplexed by the same question, while the girl was astonished to find her vague suspicions shared. —  Winston of the Prairie
  • She asked the pigs how they managed in winter; but they only grunted, and she could not remember what became of them, for the sty was always empty in cold weather One dreadful night she found out. —  The Louisa Alcott Reader: a Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School
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Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English stig.
  2. Alteration of Middle English styanye : styan, sty (from Old English stīgend, from present participle of stīgan, to rise; see steigh- in Indo-European roots) + eye, ye, eye; see eye.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English stien, styen, steyen, stighen, stizen, from Anglo-Saxon stīgan = Old Saxon stīgan = OFries. stiga = Dutch stijgen = Middle Low German Low German stigen = Old High German stīgan. Middle High German stigon, German steigon = Icelandic stūga = Swedish stiga = Danish stige = Gothic (Moesogothic) steigan, rise, ascend, mount; in comp. Anglo-Saxon āstīgan, rise, move up, or, with an appropriate adverb, move down, descend; = Greek στεῑχειν, go, walk, march, go in line (see stich), = L. √ stigh in vestigium, footprint, vestige (see vestige), = Old Bulgarian stignanti, haste, Sanskrit √ stigh, mount. From this root are ult. English sty, n., sty, sty, stile, stair.
  2. (a) from Middle English sty, stye, stie, stiz, stih, from Anglo-Saxon stīg = Middle Dutch stijghe = Old High German stīg, stīc, Middle High German stīc, German steig = Icelandic stīgr,stigr = Swedish stig = Danish sti, a path, footway; (b) from Middle English sty, stie, a step, ladder, = Old High German stīga, Middle High German stīge, a path, step, ladder; also Middle Dutch steghe, steegh, Dutch steeg, a path, lane. = Middle Low German stege, a path, ascent, also a step, = Old High German stiega, Middle High German stiege, a rise, ascent, step, stair, staircase, = Icelandic stigi, stegi = Danish stige, a step, ladder; (c) cf. Old High German steg, Middle High German stec, German steg, a path, bridge (the forms, of three or four orig. different types, being more or less confused with one another, and wavering between the long and short vowel); related to sty, stile, stair, etc., all ult. from the verb sty.
  3. from sty, n.
 

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/stai/
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