Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A staff used for assistance in walking, especially such a staff longer than the ordinary walking-stick or -cane.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word walking-staff.

Examples

  • Then she picked up her walking-staff, filled her pockets with charged keystones, and left their lodging.

    Tran Siberian Michael J. Solender 2010

  • As he threaded the streets he was met by an old man age-decrepit, whose beard flowed down upon his breast and forked in twain; 380 he bore a walking-staff in his hand and was richly clad, with a great red turband on his head.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • He carried a badly made longbow for a walking-staff, and had a quiver of white-feathered arrows slung at his side, the kind of weapons a farmer might legally carry on the road against bandits and brigands.

    2005 Cherryh, C. J. 2005

  • But looking at the old man as he stood quiet with his bead bowed and his eyes cast down, he felt that to relinquish an inch of his baldness, an inch of his grey hair, an inch of his coat-skirt, an inch of his hat-brim, an inch of his walking-staff, would be to relinquish hundreds of pounds.

    Our Mutual Friend 2004

  • Then she picked up her walking-staff, filled her pockets with charged keystones, and left their lodging.

    The Outstretched Shadow 2003

  • But what Wagstaff principally prides himself upon is, that Henry the Eighth, in one of his nocturnal rambles, broke the head of one of his ancestors with his famous walking-staff.

    The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon 2002

  • Silver of water gleamed through the blanched, pallid green of winter reeds, but though an accumulation of leaves, dead twigs and branches had drifted and lodged here, he saw no sign of an ebony walking-staff.

    The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

  • "I know they can be imps of Satan," said Erwald to Brother Cadfael, when the child had been soothed and bandaged and lugged away by an indignant mother, "and many a time I expect you and I have clouted a backside or boxed an ear, but not with a great walking-staff like that one he carries."

    The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

  • He tucked up his cassock with decision, took his biretta and walking-staff, and said to the three goat-herds: --

    Little Novels of Italy Madonna Of The Peach-Tree, Ippolita In The Hills, The Duchess Of Nona, Messer Cino And The Live Coal, The Judgment Of Borso Maurice Henry Hewlett

  • Like that choleric warrior Achilles, he was somewhat subject to extempore bursts of passion, which were rather unpleasant to his favorites and attendants, whose perceptions he was apt to quicken, after the manner of his illustrious imitator, Peter the Great, by anointing their shoulders with his walking-staff.

    Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 Charles Herbert Sylvester

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.