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Staple   /stˈeɪpəl/   Listen
noun
Staple  n.  
1.
A settled mart; an emporium; a city or town to which merchants brought commodities for sale or exportation in bulk; a place for wholesale traffic. "The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade." "For the increase of trade and the encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool." Note: In England, formerly, the king's staple was established in certain ports or towns, and certain goods could not be exported without being first brought to these places to be rated and charged with the duty payable to the king or the public. The principal commodities on which customs were levied were wool, skins, and leather; and these were originally the staple commodities.
2.
Hence: Place of supply; source; fountain head. "Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news. Whenever there was a rumor that any thing important had happened or was about to happen, people hastened thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain head."
3.
The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a principal commodity or production of a country or district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples of the United States. "We should now say, Cotton is the great staple, that is, the established merchandise, of Manchester."
4.
The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
5.
Unmanufactured material; raw material.
6.
The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
7.
A loop of metal such as iron, or a bar or wire, bent and formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a hook, pin, or the like.
8.
Specifically: A small loop of metal such as steel, bent into a U-shape with the points sharpened, used to fasten sheets of paper together by driving the staple (8) through the stacked sheets and into a formed receptacle which curls the ends in and backward, thus holding the papers firmly together; also, a similar, slightly larger such fastener which may be driven into wood to fasten objects to a wooden backing.
9.
(Mining)
(a)
A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.
(b)
A small pit.
10.
A district granted to an abbey. (Obs.)



verb
staple  v. t.  (past & past part. stapled; pres. part. stapling)  
1.
To sort according to its staple; as, to staple cotton.
2.
To fasten together with a staple (9) or staples; as, to staple a check to a letter.



adjective
Staple  adj.  
1.
Pertaining to, or being a market or staple for, commodities; as, a staple town. (R.)
2.
Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled; as, a staple trade.
3.
Fit to be sold; marketable. (R.)
4.
Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief. "Wool, the great staple commodity of England."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Staple" Quotes from Famous Books



... planted, and promised to become a staple of the Islands; but a blight attacked the trees and proved so incurable that the best plantations were dug up and turned into sugar; and the export of coffee, which has been very variable, but which rose to 415,000 ...
— Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands • Charles Nordhoff

... Yet the staple of public opinion was sound, as it must be where women predominate. The best of women could not see why they should not have anything they wanted for less than it cost the maker. To gaze at a sister woman better ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... he had never seen raw cotton, only a little of which, indeed, had been raised in the United States. It had not been profitable because of the difficulty of picking out the green cottonseed. To separate one pound of the staple from the seed was a day's work, so that cotton was considered rather as a curiosity than as a profitable crop. Whitney was impressed by the possibilities of cotton culture, could this obstacle be overcome, and devoted his spare time to the construction ...
— American Men of Mind • Burton E. Stevenson

... second his hand touched the window-ledge. He felt along the sash and shoved upward. To his surprise, the window lifted easily. But the hand he shoved without met, as he expected it would, a heavy wooden shutter; and his investigating fingers disclosed, moreover, a padlock, that, by means of a staple sunk in the sill, locked the shutter fast. No hope of getting ...
— Fire Mountain - A Thrilling Sea Story • Norman Springer

... to the coast. Flour they generally captured from the Spanish. They seldom were without a supply, for it is often mentioned as a marching ration—"a doughboy, or dumpling," boiled with fat, in a sort of heavy cake, a very portable and filling kind of victual. At sea their staple food was flesh—either boucanned meat or salted turtle. Their allowance, "twice a day to every one," was "as much as he can eat, without either weight or measure." Water and strong liquors were allowed (while they ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield


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