stable
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsteɪbl̩/Category:English 2-syllable words#STABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#STABLE
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#STABLEAudio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsteɪb(ə)l/Category:English 2-syllable words#STABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#STABLE
- Rhymes: -eɪbəlCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪbəl#STABLECategory:Rhymes:English/eɪbəl/2 syllables#STABLE
- Hyphenation: sta‧ble
Etymology 1

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#STABLECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#STABLE stable, borrowed from Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#STABLE stable, singular derived from the plural LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#STABLE stab(u)la (“dwellings, stables”).
Noun
stable (plural stables)Category:English lemmas#STABLECategory:English nouns#STABLECategory:English countable nouns#STABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
- A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
- Synonym: horsebarn
- Coordinate terms: byre, sty
- There were stalls for fourteen horses in the squire's stables.Category:English terms with usage examples#STABLE
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- (metonymicCategory:English metonyms#STABLE) All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
- (ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#STABLE) A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
- (sumoCategory:en:Sumo#STABLE) An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.
- Synonym: heya
- (professional wrestlingCategory:en:Professional wrestling#STABLE) A group of wrestlers who support each other within a wrestling storyline.
- 2022 September 17, Thomas Kika, “WWE's Logan Paul Confronts Roman Reigns Amid Rumors of Major Title Bout”, in Newsweek:
- Paul, who signed with WWE in late June, appeared in a segment with Reigns' stable, the Bloodline, on Friday's episode of SmackDown after making comments earlier in the week regarding a potential match with the Tribal Chief.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- (slangCategory:English slang#STABLE) A group of prostitutes managed by one pimp.
- Synonym: string
- 2013, Noble Dee, Pimp: Reflection of My Life, page 167:Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
- My pimp vision enabled me to see that no hoe in my stable would be more worthy of the game than my young turnout red-bones.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- A group of people who are looked after, mentored, or trained in one place or for a particular purpose or profession.
- A coherent or consistent set of things (typically abstract) available or presented; array.
- 2013, Sandra F. Sperino, “Statutory Proximate Cause”, in Notre Dame Law Review, volume 88, number 3, page 1207:
- This Article argues that to date, the Supreme Court has drawn from a narrow stable of arguments to create a fairly standard, yet coarse, analysis to consider when to apply proximate cause to statutes.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- 2019 January, Leila McNeill, “Surely You’re a Creep, Mr. Feynman”, in The Baffler, number 43:
- Built into the popular conception of the genius mythos in the sciences is something more than mere intelligence; the solitary free-thinking scientist is also expected to showcase a proclivity for eccentricity, rule breaking, and unconventional thinking and behavior. But when it comes to the abuse of scientific power for sexual predation, this stable of behaviors represents a slippery slope.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
Derived terms
- Augean stables
- close the stable door after the horse has been stolen
- close the stable door after the horse has bolted
- evolutionarily stable strategy
- livery stable
- lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen
- lock the stable door after the horse has bolted
- shelf-stable
- shut the stable door after the horse has bolted
- stable boy
- stable fly
- stable girl
- stablehand
- stable lad
- stablemate
- stable-stand
- stable vice
Translations
Verb
stable (third-person singular simple present stables, present participle stabling, simple past and past participle stabled)Category:English lemmas#STABLECategory:English verbs#STABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STABLE) To put or keep (an animal) in a stable.
- 1883 September 25, R. H. Lundie, “Licensed Victuallers and Sunday-Closing”, in Liverpool Daily Post, number 8807, published 26 September 1883, page 5, column 7:
- It is not difficult for the wealthy brewer or pluralist publican, while he takes his ease in his comfortable dwelling on the Lord’s Day, or rolls in his chariot to the house of prayer, to denounce the agitation in favour of Sunday-closing, while his weary barmen and barmaidens “work from early morn to midnight” to carpet his ample halls and stable his well-fed horses.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- 1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 7, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1998:
- "I hope your have been quite comfortable." ¶ "Never better stabled in my life," said Bree.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#STABLE) To dwell in a stable.
- (rail transportCategory:en:Rail transportation#STABLE, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STABLE) To park (a rail vehicle).
- 1960 July, Trains Illustrated, page 385, photo caption:
- S.R. Pacific No. 34010 Sidmouth leaves Wembley Central to stable the stock of its excursion from the S.R. at North Wembley; the train was run in connection with a Wembley football event on April 30, 1960.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- 2020 April 22, “Fleet News: Passenger operators put parts of fleet into warm storage...”, in Rail, page 25:
- Great Western Railway has placed its Class 143 Pacer fleet into warm storage, with the majority stabled at Exeter.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
Derived terms
- (rail transport): outstable
Related terms
Translations
Etymology 2

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#STABLECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#STABLE stable, from Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#STABLE stable, stabel, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#STABLE stabilis (“firm, steadfast”) (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”)). Displaced native Old English staþolfæst.
Adjective
stable (comparative stabler or more stable, superlative stablest or most stable)Category:English lemmas#STABLECategory:English adjectives#STABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
- Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.
- He was in a stable relationship.Category:English terms with usage examples#STABLE
- a stable governmentCategory:English terms with usage examples#STABLE
- a. 1729, John Rogers, The Greatness of the Gospel Salvation:Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
- In this region of chance, […] where nothing ws stable.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 16:
- And to whoever that cry hath ever come he must needs follow and follow, leaving all stable things; only to be always with Slid in all the moods of Slid, to find no rest until he reaches the sea.Category:English terms with quotations#STABLE
- (computingCategory:en:Computing#STABLE) Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.
- You should download the 1.9 version of that video editing software: it is the latest stable version. The newer beta version has some bugs.Category:English terms with usage examples#STABLE
- (computer scienceCategory:en:Computer science#STABLE, of a sorting algorithm) That maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.
- (commutative algebra, of a filtration of a module over a ring with respect to an ideal (here but often etc.) of that ring)Category:en:Algebra#STABLE Eventually satisfying the identity .
Synonyms
- (relatively unchanging): fixed, unvarying; see also Thesaurus:steady
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
Category:en:Animal dwellings#STABLECategory:en:Horses#STABLECategory:en:Personality#STABLEFrench
Etymology
Borrowed from LatinCategory:French terms borrowed from Latin#STABLECategory:French terms derived from Latin#STABLE stabilis. Replaced Middle French, Old French estable, an earlier borrowing from the same Latin source.
Pronunciation
Adjective
stable (plural stables)Category:French lemmas#STABLECategory:French adjectives#STABLECategory:French entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
Related terms
Descendants
- → Turkish: stabil
Further reading
- “stable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Middle English
Etymology 1
From Anglo-NormanCategory:Middle English terms borrowed from Anglo-Norman#STABLECategory:Middle English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#STABLE stable, singular derived from the plural LatinCategory:Middle English terms derived from Latin#STABLE stab(u)la (“dwellings, stables”).
Noun
stable (plural stables or stablen)Category:Middle English lemmas#STABLECategory:Middle English nouns#STABLECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
- stable (building for horses)
- c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, lines 28–29:
- The chambres and the stables weren wyde, / And wel we weren esed atte beste;Category:Middle English terms with quotations#STABLE
- The rooms and stables spacious were and wide, / And well we there were eased, and of the best.
Alternative forms
Descendants
References
- “stāble, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
From Anglo-NormanCategory:Middle English terms borrowed from Anglo-Norman#STABLECategory:Middle English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#STABLE stable, stabel, from LatinCategory:Middle English terms derived from Latin#STABLE stabilis (“firm, steadfast”).
Adjective
stable (comparative stabler or stablere or stablour)Category:Middle English lemmas#STABLECategory:Middle English adjectives#STABLECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
- stable (relatively unchanging)
Alternative forms
Descendants
References
- “stāble, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 3
Noun
stableCategory:Middle English lemmas#STABLECategory:Middle English nouns#STABLECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE (plural stables)
- alternative form of stablie
Etymology 4
Noun
stableCategory:Middle English lemmas#STABLECategory:Middle English nouns#STABLECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE (plural stables)
- alternative form of stapel
Etymology 5
Verb
stableCategory:Middle English lemmas#STABLECategory:Middle English verbs#STABLECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE (third-person singular simple present stableth, present participle stablende, stablynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle stabled)
- alternative form of stablen (“to establish”)
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From the noun stabel.
Verb
stable (imperative stabl or stable, present tense stabler, passive stables, simple past and past participle stabla or stablet, present participle stablende)Category:Norwegian Bokmål lemmas#STABLECategory:Norwegian Bokmål verbs#STABLECategory:Norwegian Bokmål entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLE
References
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From the noun stabel.
Verb
stable (present tense stablar, past tense stabla, past participle stabla, passive infinitive stablast, present participle stablande, imperative stable/stabl)Category:Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas#STABLECategory:Norwegian Nynorsk verbs#STABLECategory:Norwegian Nynorsk entries with incorrect language header#STABLECategory:Pages with entries#STABLECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STABLECategory:Norwegian Nynorsk weak verbs
Alternative forms
References
- “stable” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.