stage

Etymology 1

From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stæde, stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead.

noun

1. A phase.
   He is in the recovery stage of his illness.
   Completion of an identifiable stage of maintenance such as removing an aircraft engine for repair or storage.
   "They're bikini briefs", Nicole said. "That just means sexy underwear." "I though naked was sexy." "Well, it is. But sexy comes in stages". 1986, Daniel Woodrell, Under the Bright Lights, page 66
   Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches. 2013-06-28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
2. (by extension) One of the portions of a device (such as a rocket or thermonuclear weapon) which are used or activated in a particular order, one after another.
   The first stage of the launcher burned out and separated after successfully boosting the payload onto a suborbital trajectory, but the engine of the upper stage failed to ignite to place the satellite into orbit.
3. (theater) A platform; a surface, generally elevated, upon which show performances or other public events are given.
   The band returned to the stage to play an encore.
   Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, / Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. 1829, Charles Sprague, Curiosity
   The theater is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, it is also the return of art to life. 1891, Oscar Wilde, Intentions
4. A floor or storey of a house.
5. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, etc.; scaffolding; staging.
6. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
7. A stagecoach, an enclosed horsedrawn carriage used to carry passengers.
   The stage pulled into town carrying the payroll for the mill and three ladies.
   I went in the sixpenny stage. April 14 1711, letter to Stella, Jonathan Swift
8. (dated) A place of rest on a regularly travelled road; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
9. (dated) A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road.
   a stage of ten miles
   A stage […] signifies a certain distance on a road. 1807, Francis Jeffrey, “Clarkson on Quakerism”, in The Edinburgh Review April 1807
   He travelled by gig, with his wife, his favourite horse performing the journey by easy stages. 1858, Samuel Smiles, Robert Stephenson, The Life of George Stephenson: Railway Engineer, page 356
   The Mount Vernon, favoured by a good stage of water, soon cleared the narrow Monongahela channel, passed the confluence, and headed down under full steam, […]. 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter 3, in The Purchase Price
   At present, however, in spite of vigorous efforts to increase through train working, the stage-by-stage movement of individual wagons remains the normal method of freight movement. 1962 December, “Dr. Beeching previews the plan for British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 377
10. (electronics) The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
    a 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter
11. The place on a microscope where the slide is located for viewing.
    He placed the slide on the stage.
12. (video games) A level; one of the sequential areas making up the game.
    How do you get past the flying creatures in the third stage?
13. A place where anything is publicly exhibited, or a remarkable affair occurs; the scene.
    Rooney's United team-mate Chris Smalling was given his debut at right-back and was able to adjust to the international stage in relatively relaxed fashion as Bulgaria barely posed a threat of any consequence. September 2, 2011, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC
    Paid media is the admission ticket to enter the big-time Washington stage. 2015, Gary Andres, Paul Hernnson, Lobbying Reconsidered: Politics Under the Influence, page 149
14. (geology) The succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic time scale.
15. (Canada, Quebec) An internship.

verb

1. (transitive) To produce on a stage, to perform a play.
   The local theater group will stage "Pride and Prejudice".
2. To demonstrate in a deceptive manner.
   The salesman's demonstration of the new cleanser was staged to make it appear highly effective.
3. (transitive) To orchestrate; to carry out.
   The workers staged a strike.
   A protest will be staged in the public square on Monday.
4. (transitive) To place in position to prepare for use.
   We staged the cars to be ready for the start, then waited for the starter to drop the flag.
   to stage data to be written at a later time
5. (transitive, medicine) To determine what stage (a disease, etc.) has progressed to
   One method of documenting a wound is as follows: (1) stage the ulcer, time present, setting where occurred; (2) describe the location anatomically; (3) measure ulcer in centimeters (length × width × base); […] 2010, Howard M. Fillit, Kenneth Rockwood, Kenneth Woodhouse, Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, page 940
6. (astronautics) To jettison a spent stage of a multistage rocket or other launch vehicle and light the engine(s) of the stage above it.
   In Kerbal Space Program, you stage away used-up parts of your rocket by hitting the spacebar.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French stage (“internship”).

noun

1. (cooking) An unpaid internship in a restaurant where a cook or chef is exposed to new culinary techniques.
   It doesn’t matter that recent reporting on the stage economy of Copenhagen […] has revealed a pattern of abuse and dangerous working conditions for unpaid interns. In “The Bear,” the stage is a dream: Marcus’s tasks are simply to learn from a skilled but kind and patient mentor, to get out and about and feel inspired, and to come up with some new dishes of his own. 2023-06-23, Tejal Rao, “‘The Bear’ Finds Optimism in the Dysfunctional World of Hospitality”, in The New York Times

verb

1. (intransitive, cooking) To work as an unpaid intern in a restaurant.
   Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri): I'm Sydney. I called about the sous position, I'm staging today. Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White): Right. Shit, sorry. Yes. Yeah. 2022-06-23, Christopher Storer, “System”, in Christopher Storer, director, The Bear, season 1, episode 1, via Hulu