▪ I. stover, n.1 Now dial.
(ˈstəʊvə(r))
Also 6–7 stoover, stouver, stower.
[Aphetic variant of estover.]
† 1. The provision of food (for persons or animals) necessary for a journey or a sojourn. Obs.
| 13.. Seuyn Sag. (W.) 2606 Thai..fond hire that night stouer, And left here alone. 13.. K. Alis. 1866, Anon was..Y-charged mony a selcouth beste, Olifauns, and eke camailes, With armure, and eke vitailes;..Assen and muylyn, with heore stoveris. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 7611 For wonderliche þai weren bliþe Of þe eiȝtte & stouers, Þat þai brouȝt, þo pauteners. a 1320 Sir Tristr. 1149 A schip þou bring me tille, Mine harp to play me þare, Stouer ynouȝ to wille To kepe me, son ȝou ȝare. |
2. † a. gen. Winter food for cattle. Obs.
| 1557 Tusser 100 Points Husb. xxxvii, If barne rome will serue, lay thy stoouer vp drye, and eche kinde of strawe, by hitselfe let it lie. 1563–83 Foxe A. & M. 271/1 He plowed vp the fieldes, that there should no stouer be found to serue their horses. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. v. (1593) 116 Dame Ceres..made corne and stover soft to grow upon the ground. 1577 Harrison England i. xiii. 38/1 in Holinshed, The haye of our lowe meddowes is..not so profitable, for stouer and forrage as y⊇ higher meades be. 1578 Timme Calvin on Gen. vi. 22. 189 Noah..had much more businesse and trouble in prouiding stouer and prouinder for beastes themselues. 1600 Holland Livy xxiii. xlviii. 506 The corn was..so well grown, that the blade therof yeelded good forage & stouver for the horses. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 63 Ceres..Thy Turphie-Mountaines, where liue nibling Sheepe, And flat Medes thetchd with Stouer, them to keepe. 1622 Drayton Poly-olb. xxv. 145 And others from their Carres, are busily about, To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and Stouer fit. 1634–5 Ir. Act 10 & 11 Chas. I, c. xvii. (1678) 474 The..improvident care of the owners, that neither provide fodder, nor stover for them [sc. cattle] in winter, nor [etc.]. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 118 Whereas gloomy cold and close weather, shuts them in and saves stover. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words, Stover: Fodder for cattel, as hay, straw or the like, Ess. |
| fig. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xvi. v. 56 Gathering together certaine forage and stoover (as it were) for to feed his mind [L. quasi pabulum animo..conquirens]. |
b. spec. In various applications according to locality: Hay made from clover; broken straw, etc. from the threshing-floor; stubble. (See quots.)
| 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. 276 Stover, Straw. 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 84 A good Crop of Peas, or other Stover in great Quantities has been taken off. Ibid. 381 These Creatures are of prodigious Service in converting Stover to one of the best of Dungs. 1763 Museum Rust. (ed. 2) I. 191 Neither is the haulm so good, as it will not serve for stover for our cattle in the winter. 1787 W. H. Marshall E. Norfolk II. 389 Stover, a general term for the different species of fodder arising from thrashed corn, whether it be straw, chaff, or ‘colder’. 1788 ― Yorks. II. 45 The stover (that is, the pulls and points of the [rape-] straw broken off in thrashing) is as acceptable to them [sc. cattle] as hay. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words, Stuva or Stover, clover made into hay. 1840 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. I. iii. 255 The land not producing then stover sufficient to keep any stock worth mentioning. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Stover, or Sturver, haulm, stubble; the second mowing or growth of clover. 1883 C. Wilson in Harper's Mag. Jan. 271/2 The..annual yield of corn stover in its various forms is not less than 120,000,000 tons. 1889 J. J. Hissey Tour in Phaeton 140 At Woodbridge we observed..the notice ‘Stover sold here’. |
† 3. Used for: ? Reeds. (Cf. quot. 1622 in 2 a.)
| 1621 Markham Fowling 9 They loue also..Fennes,..ouer⁓growne with tall and long rushes, reads, seges, stouer, or any other kinde of Couert. 1638 W. Lisle Heliodorus i. 7 Where th' ouer-flouds of Nile Fall int' a Dale vnmeatly midward deepe, Though nigh the banks to muddy fen it creepe. This Stouer breeds, which some for pasture take. 1895 E. Angl. Gloss., Stiver or Stover marsh litter or marsh stuff. |
▪ II. stover, n.2
(ˈstəʊvə(r))
[f. stove v.1 + -er1.]
One who stoves.
| c 1600 in Rep. MSS. Ld. Middleton (1911) 169 [Rules to be observed by miners in the coalpits.] This is our master's comandment that all you stovers of the feild shalle make your just account unto your undermen everye nowne and every nyght what you have gett and sould. 1832 Thackrah Effects Arts etc. on Health 58 The Stovers of Woollen Articles are also exposed to the evolution of sulphurous vapour. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 400 The stovers, in bleach-works and print-works, hang their cloth in temperatures much above 100° Fahr. 1861 Internat. Exhib. 1862, Alph. Lists Trades 39 Stovers. 1902 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Feb. 380/1 Hatting Operatives... Proofers including ‘stovers’..and ‘steamers’. |
▪ III. † ˈstover, v. Obs.
[? f. stover n.1]
intr. ? To stand up like stubble, to bristle up.
| 1633 Ford Love's Sacrif. ii. i, Beard be confin'd to neatnesse, that no haire May stouer vp to pricke my mistris lip. |