Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to lend money, to put up funds for someone’s enterprise.

1853		‘Philip Paxton’ A Stray Yankee in Texas 219: The jo-fired mean whelp wouldn’t stake me.
1868		Manchester Wkly Times 26 Dec. 11/3: ‘Done!’ cried the farmer; an’ they staked their brass.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Dec. 7/2: ‘There’s a fiver out of this pile against me [...] I staked a poor tramp with a black eye her man had given her’.
1888		Sun (NY) 13 May 14/6: Just stake me with twenty-five bones .
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 95: Any of ’em that’s got himself staked to a spring suit [...] thinks he’s up to the limit.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 72: He’s gotta slick ’em up first [...] an’ stake himself tuh a couple soots.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 335: I anticipated that my father would have no objection to staking me to the necessary amount.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 66: If you run out of jack, I’ll stake you.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 239: Kind-hearted guys [...] always stake her to a few pieces of silver.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 88: In walks traveling salesman, promises job in Chicago, stakes her to railroad ticket.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 45: This guy was a zombie [...] but he’d staked them for a half-dozen decks.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 89: Although Moise and I were not moochers (by profession), we had no objection to a host staking us to filet mignon and Château Yquem.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 28: He’d stake people who needed money.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 223: I’ll stake you and we’ll split.

2. (US und.) to bribe.

1874

‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 59: ‘Staked the captain? ‘No. We’re on the break-up.’ ‘Staked the beat?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Heavy?’ ‘Five dollars a night’ .

3. to finance, to hand over money to make something possible.

1957

G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 19: Some twister pays his fivepence—they make a pool, the bastards, an’ stake ’im—so ’e opens a side exit an’ ’alf a dozen of ’em slip in.