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staple

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
staple1
1. a short length of thin wire bent into a square U-shape, used to fasten papers, cloth, etc.
2. a short length of stiff wire formed into a U-shape with pointed ends, used for holding a hasp to a post, securing electric cables, etc
staple2
1. (of a commodity) forming a predominant element in the product, consumption, or trade of a nation, region, etc.
2. a staple commodity
3. Chiefly US and Canadian a principal raw material produced or grown in a region
4. the fibre of wool, cotton, etc., graded as to length and fineness
5. (in medieval Europe) a town appointed to be the exclusive market for one or more major exports of the land
staple [′stā·pəl]
(design engineering)
A U-shaped loop of wire with points at both ends; used as a fastener.
(textiles)
The average fiber length to be used in spinning a yarn.
1.(language)STAPLE - A programming language written at Manchester (University?) and used at ICL in the early 1970s for writing the test suites. STAPLE was based on Algol 68 and had a very advanced optimising compiler.
2.(language)Staple - St Andrews Applicative Persistent Language. Language combining functional programming with persistent storage, developed at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Tony Davie, <ad@cs.st-andrews.ac.uk>.


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Behind the most ancient part of Holborn, London, where certain gabled houses some centuries of age still stand looking on the public way, as if disconsolately looking for the Old Bourne that has long run dry, is a little nook composed of two irregular quadrangles, called Staple Inn.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens, Charles View in context
A passenger was running through a gangway, between decks, one stormy night, when he caught his foot in the iron staple of a door that had been heedlessly left off a hatchway, and the bones of his leg broke at the ancle.
The Innocents Abroad by Twain, Mark View in context
Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in this business of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly wasted.
Moby Dick I-LXVII by Melville, Herman View in context
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