staving adj.
big, excessive; thus staver n., someone or something exceptional.
![]() | N.-Y. Trib. 7 Feb. 5/6: A staving dram put him in a better humor [DA]. | |
![]() | Oldtown Folks 117: She was spoken of with applause under such titles as ‘a staver,’ ‘a pealer,’ ‘a roarer to work’. | |
![]() | Sel. Letters (1988) 12: We’ve got a staving old Latin lesson today. | letter in Splete|
![]() | (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 120: This one was a staving dream. | |
![]() | Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) 197: I made a stavin, stirrin speech. It must of been a ring-tail dick nailer, for the crowd was all with me at the finish. | in Hudson|
![]() | DN II:vi 428: staving, adj. & adv. Excellent, exceeding. | ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in