stale

¹

[steyl]

adjective

staler, stalest 

1. not fresh; vapid or flat, as beverages; dry or hardened, as bread.

   Synonyms: insipid, sour, tasteless, hard
   Antonyms: fresh

2. musty; stagnant.

   stale air.

3. having lost novelty or interest; hackneyed; trite.

   a stale joke.

   Synonyms: common, old, stereotyped, uninteresting

4. having lost freshness, vigor, quick intelligence, initiative, or the like, as from overstrain, boredom, or surfeit.

   He had grown stale on the job and needed a long vacation.

5. Law.,  having lost force or effectiveness through absence of action, as a claim.

verb (used with or without object)

staled, staling 

1. to make or become stale.

stale

²

[steyl]

verb (used without object)

staled, staling 

1. (of livestock, especially horses) to urinate.

stale

¹

/ steɪl /

adjective

1. (esp of food) hard, musty, or dry from being kept too long

2. (of beer, etc) flat and tasteless from being kept open too long

3. (of air) stagnant; foul

4. uninteresting from overuse; hackneyed

   stale clichés

5. no longer new

   stale news

6. lacking in energy or ideas through overwork or lack of variety

7. banking (of a cheque) not negotiable by a bank as a result of not having been presented within six months of being written

8. law (of a claim, etc) having lost its effectiveness or force, as by failure to act or by the lapse of time

verb

1. to make or become stale

stale

²

/ steɪl /

verb

1. (intr) (of livestock) to urinate

noun

1. the urine of horses or cattle

Other Word Forms

• stalely adverb
• staleness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of stale¹

1250–1300; Middle English; akin to Middle Dutch stel in same sense; perhaps akin to stand or to stale ²

Origin of stale²

1400–50; late Middle English stalen to urinate; cognate with German stallen, Danish stalle, Norwegian, Swedish stalla

Word History and Origins

Origin of stale¹

C13 (originally applied to liquor in the sense: well matured): probably via Norman French from Old French estale (unattested) motionless, of Frankish origin; related to _stall ¹ , _install

Origin of stale²

C15: perhaps from Old French estaler to stand in one position; see _stall ¹ ; compare Middle Low German stallen to urinate, Greek stalassein to drip

Example Sentences

The campaign hasn’t even started and already those metaphors have grown stale.

From Los Angeles Times

It's a functional space; strip lighting, bench presses, pull-up bars and the tang of stale sweat.

From BBC

“It is of course these funny letters and my feeling that One must enjoy his work or grow stale keeps me on the go,” he wrote to his friend Paul Wilder in a 1957 letter.

From Los Angeles Times

Her move leaves this obvious attempt to rehash “Russiagate” too stale for even Fox News to hype.

From Salon

Instead, “Happy Gilmore 2” opts to recycle the same narrative beats of the first film, making the similarly reprocessed jokes feel even more stale.

From Salon

Related Words

• corny 
• dull 
• hackneyed 
• shopworn 
• threadbare 
• tired