station

Etymology

From Middle English stacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman estation, from Latin statiōnem, accusative of statiō (“standing, post, job, position”), whence also Italian stazione. Doublet of stagione. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi), στάσις (stásis), Old English standan (whence English stand).

noun

1. A stopping place.
   1. A regular stopping place for ground transportation.
      The next station is Esperanza.
   2. A ground transportation depot.
      It's right across from the bus station.
   3. A place where one stands or stays or is assigned to stand or stay.
      From my station at the front door, I greeted every visitor.
      All ships are on station, Admiral.
      He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps. 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
   4. A place where some object is provided.
      Collect a knife and fork from the cutlery station on the way to your table.
   5. (US) A gas station, service station.
      Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare. October 31 2012, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31
2. A place where workers are stationed.
   1. An official building from which police or firefighters operate.
      The police station is opposite the fire station.
   2. A place where one performs a task or where one is on call to perform a task.
      The waitress was at her station preparing three checks.
      The station is part of a group of stations run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. File:The station is part of a group of stations.ogg
   3. A military base.
      She had a boyfriend at the station.
   4. A place used for broadcasting radio or television.
      I used to work at a radio station.
   5. (Australia, New Zealand) A very large sheep or cattle farm.
      There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around, / that the colt from old Regret had got away, 1890, A. B. Paterson, The Man From Snowy River
      1993, Kay Walsh, Joy W. Hooton, Dowker, L. O., entry in Australian Autobiographical Narratives: 1850-1900, page 69, Tiring of sheep, he took work on cattle stations, mustering cattle on vast unfenced holdings, and looking for work ‘nigger-bossing’, or supervising Aboriginal station hands.
      The romance of the gritty station owner in a crumpled Akubra, his kids educated from the remote homestead by the School of the Air, while triple-trailer road trains drag tornadoes of dust across the plains, creates a stirring idea of the modern-day pioneer battling against the elemental Outback. 2003, Margo Daly, Anne Dehne, Rough Guide to Australia, page 654
   6. (historical) In British India, the place where the English officials of a district, or the officers of a garrison (not in a fortress) reside.
      It was my fate to commence my career in the medical service forty years ago in the presanitary days, long before the introduction of modern methods of diagnosis, at two of the most unhealthy stations in the whole of India — Bellary and Secunderabad. 1881, International Congress of Medicine, Transactions of the 1st, 2nd, 4th-17th Congress, page 541
3. (Christianity) Any of the Stations of the Cross.
4. (Christianity) The Roman Catholic fast of the fourth and sixth days of the week, Wednesday and Friday, in memory of the council which condemned Christ, and of his passion.
5. (Christianity) A church in which the procession of the clergy halts on stated days to say stated prayers.
   So dyd Offa[…]Deuoutly to vysyte all the hole stacyons of the cytee of Rome. 1513, Henry Bradshaw, The Life of Saint Werburge of Chester
6. Standing; rank; position.
   She had ambitions beyond her station.
7. A broadcasting entity.
   I used to listen to that radio station.
8. (Newfoundland) A harbour or cove with a foreshore suitable for a facility to support nearby fishing.
9. (surveying) Any of a sequence of equally spaced points along a path.
10. The particular place, or kind of situation, in which a species naturally occurs; a habitat.
11. (mining) An enlargement in a shaft or galley, used as a landing, or passing place, or for the accommodation of a pump, tank, etc.
12. Post assigned; office; the part or department of public duty which a person is appointed to perform; sphere of duty or occupation; employment.
    Moreover, by spending this day [Sunday] in religious exercises, we acquire new strength and resolution to perform God's will in our several stations the week following. 1704, Robert Nelson, A Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England, New, Revised and Corrected edition, published 1837, page 18
13. (medicine) The position of the foetal head in relation to the distance from the ischial spines, measured in centimetres.
14. (obsolete) The fact of standing still; motionlessness, stasis.
    […]the cross legs [are] moving or resting together, so that two are always in motion and two in station at the same time[…] 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.5
15. (astronomy) The apparent standing still of a superior planet just before it begins or ends its retrograde motion.

verb

1. (usually passive) To put in place to perform a task.
   The host stationed me at the front door to greet visitors.
   I was stationed on the pier.
   Watchmen are stationed continuously at each end of the bridge, and the main spans are patrolled twice during the night. 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149
   The Costa Rican's lofted corner exposed Arsenal's own problems with marking, and Berbatov, stationed right in the middle of goal, only needed to take a gentle amble back to find the space to glance past Vito Mannone November 10 2012, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian
2. To put in place to perform military duty.
   They stationed me overseas just as fighting broke out.
   I was stationed at Fort Richie.