Stage (stāj), n. [OF. estage, F. étage, (assumed) LL. staticum, from L. stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Static.] 1. A floor or story of a house. [Obs.] Wyclif.
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2. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like.
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3. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
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4. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
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5. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited.
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Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope.
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Lo! where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. C. Sprague.
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6. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or career; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs; as, politicians must live their lives on the public stage.
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When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools. Shak.
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Music and ethereal mirth
Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring. Miton.
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7. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope.
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8. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
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9. 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.
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A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road. Jeffrey.
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He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages. Smiles.
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10. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result.
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Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society. Macaulay.
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11. A large vehicle running from station to station for the accommodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus. “A parcel sent you by the stage.” Cowper. [Obsolescent]
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I went in the sixpenny stage. Swift.
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12. (Biol.) One of several marked phases or periods in the development and growth of many animals and plants; as, the larval stage; pupa stage; zœa stage.
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Stage box, a box close to the stage in a theater. -- Stage carriage, a stagecoach. -- Stage door, the actors' and workmen's entrance to a theater. -- Stage lights, the lights by which the stage in a theater is illuminated. -- Stage micrometer, a graduated device applied to the stage of a microscope for measuring the size of an object. -- Stage wagon, a wagon which runs between two places for conveying passengers or goods. -- Stage whisper, a loud whisper, as by an actor in a theater, supposed, for dramatic effect, to be unheard by one or more of his fellow actors, yet audible to the audience; an aside.
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