Staid

/steɪd/ · adjective

Meaning

Not capricious or impulsive; sedate, serious, sober..

Definitions by Sense

1. Not capricious or impulsive; sedate, serious, sober.
2. (rare) Always fixed in the same location; stationary.
3. Obsolete spelling of stayed.

Example Sentences

Put thy ſelfe / Into a hauiour of leſſe feare, ere wildneſſe / Vanquiſh my ſtayder Senſes.

The hours of study, the hours of recreation, the sports, the pastimes, the casualties, which in the staider years of life pass without note or comment, alike are wrapped and muffled in the one roseate haze.

As for Peter, he was the happiest of the happy, and had sung and whistled so joyously while skating that the staidest passers-by had smiled as they listened.

He wondered what had become of the boys who were his companions: they were nearly thirty now; some would be dead, but others were married and had children; they were soldiers and parsons, doctors, lawyers; they were staid men who were beginning to put youth behind them. Had any of them made such a hash of life as he?

I was just thinking that it's sure been a long time since you've pulled one of your great practical jokes. You've gotten downright boring lately, Cody. Staid, even.

Meetings between Pakistani and American leaders are traditionally staid and predictable, although some Pakistanis are fond of recalling an apocryphal 1963 exchange between John F. Kennedy and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – father of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to whom [Asif Ali] Zardari was married. Impressed by the then Foreign Minister, who would become Prime Minister before being deposed by a U.S.-backed military dictator in 1977 and later executed, Kennedy is alleged to have said, "If you were an American, you would be in my Cabinet." Bhutto is alleged to have answered, "Be careful, Mr. President. If I were an American, you would be in my Cabinet."

'Tis not age or height alone / Can secure the staidest throne / From the reach of Change or Death,— […]

[I]n a common sailor's life sleep is not a regular thing as we have it on shore, and perhaps that staid glazy and sedate-looking eye, which a hard-worked seaman usually has, is really caused by broken slumber. He is never completely awake, but he is never entirely asleep.

Synonyms for staid

Antonyms for staid

Related Words

Word Forms

• staider
• staidest

Usage Notes

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