Stāge1, n.
n. [O. Fr. estage, estaige, N. Fr. étage, Pr. estatge, It. staggio, Lat. as if staticus, from stare, to remain.]
Sense 1. A floor, or story of a house. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Sense 2. A platform slightly elevated, on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, and the like.
Sense 3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
Sense 4. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the play-house; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited.
Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope.
Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. Sprague.
Sense 5. A place where any thing is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or career; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs.
When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools. Shak.
Music and ethereal mirth Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring. Milton.
Sense 6. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage-house; a station; a place appointed for the relay of horses.
Sense 7. A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of ten miles.
A stage signifies a certain distance on a road. Jeffrey.
He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages. S. Smiles.
Sense 8. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result.
Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society. Macaulay.
Sense 9. Any large vehicle running from station to station for the accommodation of the public; a stage-coach; an omnibus. “A parcel sent by the stage.” Cowper.
I went in the six-penny stage. Swift.