stakes


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Related to stakes: Belmont Stakes, raise the stakes

stake

 (stāk)
n.
1. A piece of wood or metal pointed at one end for driving into the ground as a marker, fence pole, or tent peg.
2.
a. A vertical post to which an offender is bound for execution by burning.
b. Execution by burning. Used with the: condemned to the stake.
3. A vertical post secured in a socket at the edge of a platform, as on a truck bed, to help retain the load.
4. Mormon Church A territorial division consisting of a group of wards under the jurisdiction of a president.
5. Sports & Games
a. often stakes Money or property risked in a wager or gambling game.
b. The prize awarded the winner of a contest or race.
c. A race offering a prize to the winner, especially a horserace in which the prize consists of money contributed equally by the horse owners.
6.
a. A share or an interest in an enterprise, especially a financial share.
b. Personal interest or involvement: a stake in her children's future.
7. Something, such as a crucial change or grave consequence, that may result from a situation: The stakes are high in the mayoral election.
8. A grubstake.
tr.v. staked, stak·ing, stakes
1.
a. To mark the location or limits of with stakes. Often used with out: staked out a garden patch.
b. To claim, establish, or register as one's own. Often used with out: staked out a mining claim at the office; staked out a place for herself in the library.
2.
a. To fasten, secure, or support with a stake or stakes: staked down the tent; staked the shrubs.
b. To tether or tie to a stake.
c. To impale with a stake.
3. To gamble or risk; hazard: staked his week's pay on the horse race; staked the campaign on a promise of a tax cut.
4. To provide with money; finance: staked him to the money for the tickets.
5. Sports To provide a lead for: Her homer staked her team to a two-run lead.
Phrasal Verb:
stake out
1. To keep (a building, for example) under surveillance.
2. To assign (a police officer, for example) to an area to conduct surveillance: The police were staked out across the street from the apartment.
Idiom:
at stake
At risk; in question.

[Middle English, from Old English staca.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.stakes - the money risked on a gamblestakes - the money risked on a gamble  
gamble - money that is risked for possible monetary gain
jackpot, kitty, pot - the cumulative amount involved in a game (such as poker)
ante - (poker) the initial contribution that each player makes to the pot
kitty, pool - the combined stakes of the betters
pool - any communal combination of funds; "everyone contributed to the pool"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their upper ends, and set them at intervals upright in the bottom of the pit, his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied with the placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or the careful arrangement of leaves and earth which completely hid from view the work the black men had performed.
I say this lest thou shouldst imagine that because we have been drubbed in this affray we have therefore suffered any indignity; for the arms those men carried, with which they pounded us, were nothing more than their stakes, and not one of them, so far as I remember, carried rapier, sword, or dagger."
A few inches from her was the open doorway of the structure, and beyond, farther down the village street, the blacks were congregating about the prisoners, who were already being bound to the stakes. All eyes were centered upon the victims, and there was only the remotest chance that she and her companions would be discovered until they were close upon the blacks.
"We can't bet, for we've nothing to raise the stakes with!"
The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well marked with a double row of high stakes. The straight road was nearer but little used and had no stakes, or only poor ones covered with snow.
What may seem a small sum to a Rothschild may seem a large sum to me, and it is not the fault of stakes or of winnings that everywhere men can be found winning, can be found depriving their fellows of something, just as they do at roulette.
The circle or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head.
Quincey Morris was phlegmatic in the way of a man who accepts all things, and accepts them in the spirit of cool bravery, with hazard of all he has at stake. Not being able to smoke, he cut himself a good-sized plug of tobacco and began to chew.
The stake! The strength went out of me, and I almost fell down.
A hundred feet below the balloon stood a large post, or stake, and at its foot lay a human being--a young man of thirty years or more, with long black hair, half naked, wasted and wan, bleeding, covered with wounds, his head bowed over upon his breast, as Christ's was, when He hung upon the cross.
About a stout stake near the centre of the circling fires a little knot of black warriors stood conversing, their bodies smeared with white and blue and ochre in broad and grotesque bands.
What'd they-all stake the big flat for if they-all didn't get the hunch?