stable

plural stables · alternative UK stables

1. A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.

   There were stalls for fourteen horses in the squire's stables.

   1 more example

   We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Synonyms: horsebarn

2. metonymicallyAll the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
3. ScotlandA set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
4. governmentAn organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.

   Synonyms: heya

5. governmentA group of wrestlers who support each other within a wrestling storyline.

   Paul, who signed with WWE in late June, appeared in a segment with Reigns' stable, the Bloodline, on Friday's episode of SmackDown after making comments earlier in the week regarding a potential match with the Tribal Chief.

   2022 September 17, Thomas Kika, “WWE's Logan Paul Confronts Roman Reigns Amid Rumors of Major Title Bout”, in Newsweek

6. slangA group of prostitutes managed by one pimp.

   My pimp vision enabled me to see that no hoe in my stable would be more worthy of the game than my young turnout red-bones.

   2013, Noble Dee, Pimp: Reflection of My Life, page 167

   Synonyms: string

7. A group of people who are looked after, mentored, considered or trained in one place or for a particular purpose or profession.
8. A coherent or consistent set of things (typically abstract) available or presented; array.

   This Article argues that to date, the Supreme Court has drawn from a narrow stable of arguments to create a fairly standard, yet coarse, analysis to consider when to apply proximate cause to statutes.

   2013, Sandra F. Sperino, “Statutory Proximate Cause”, in Notre Dame Law Review, volume 88, number 3, page 1207

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   Built into the popular conception of the genius mythos in the sciences is something more than mere intelligence; the solitary free-thinking scientist is also expected to showcase a proclivity for eccentricity, rule breaking, and unconventional thinking and behavior. But when it comes to the abuse of scientific power for sexual predation, this stable of behaviors represents a slippery slope.

   2019 January, Leila McNeill, “Surely You’re a Creep, Mr. Feynman”, in The Baffler, number 43

present singular third person stables · participle present stabling · participle past stabled · past stabled · alternative UK stables

1. transitiveTo put or keep (an animal) in a stable.

   "I hope your have been quite comfortable." ¶ "Never better stabled in my life," said Bree.

   1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 7, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1998

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   It is not difficult for the wealthy brewer or pluralist publican, while he takes his ease in his comfortable dwelling on the Lord’s Day, or rolls in his chariot to the house of prayer, to denounce the agitation in favour of Sunday-closing, while his weary barmen and barmaidens “work from early morn to midnight” to carpet his ample halls and stable his well-fed horses.

   1883 September 25, R. H. Lundie, “Licensed Victuallers and Sunday-Closing”, in Liverpool Daily Post, number 8807, published 26 September 1883, page 5, column 7

2. intransitiveTo dwell in a stable.
3. transitiverail transportTo park (a rail vehicle).

   Great Western Railway has placed its Class 143 Pacer fleet into warm storage, with the majority stabled at Exeter.

   2020 April 22, “Fleet News: Passenger operators put parts of fleet into warm storage...”, in Rail, page 25

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   S.R. Pacific No. 34010 Sidmouth leaves Wembley Central to stable the stock of its excursion from the S.R. at North Wembley; the train was run in connection with a Wembley football event on April 30, 1960.

   1960 July, Trains Illustrated, page 385, photo caption

comparative stabler · comparative more stable · superlative stablest · superlative most stable

1. Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.

   a stable government

   4 more examples

   He was in a stable relationship.

   His income of £10000 per month was stable for a healthy living.

   In this region of chance, […] where nothing ws stable.

   a. 1729, John Rogers, The Greatness of the Gospel Salvation

   And to whoever that cry hath ever come he must needs follow and follow, leaving all stable things; only to be always with Slid in all the moods of Slid, to find no rest until he reaches the sea.

   1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 16

   Synonyms: fixed

2. computingOf software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.

   You should download the 1.9 version of that video editing software: it is the latest stable version. The newer beta version has some bugs.

3. computingThat maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.
4. commutative algebraEventually satisfying the identity IM_n=M_n+1.