Ash in Huntsville, Alabama, wonders about the phrase all stove up, which is how his body feels after a long day’s work. It comes from the expression to stave in, meaning “to smash in,” as when something smashes in the staves of a barrel. This...
Someone who’s really hungry might say I’m falling to staves, meaning they’re famished. It’s a reference to the way a barrel falls apart if the metal hoops that hold them together are removed. This is part of a complete...
What does it mean to be stove up? This phrase for sore or stiff has nothing to do with a stovetop; stove is actually the past tense of stave. To stave in a wooden boat is to smash a hole in its side, and thus, to be stove up is to be incapacitated...