Noun

(wikipedia gear)

(uncountable) equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.

Clothing; garments.

* Spenser

Array thyself in thy most gorgeous gear .

(obsolete) Goods; property; household items.

(Chaucer)

* Robynson (More's Utopia)

Homely gear and common ware.

(countable) a wheel with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other.

(countable) a particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved.

(countable) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque

(slang) recreational drugs

* 2003 , Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver (page 90)

Have you got any gear ? Dominic, have you got any acid?

(uncountable, archaic) stuff.

* 1662 , , Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:

"When he was digged up, which was in the presence of the Magistracy of the Town, his body was found entire, not at all putrid, no ill smell about him, saving the mustiness of the grave-Clothes, his joynts limber and flexible, as in those that are alive, his skin only flaccid, but a more fresh grown in the room of it, the wound of his throat gaping, but no gear nor corruption in it; there was also observed a Magical mark in the great toe of his right foot, viz. an Excrescency in the form of a Rose."

(obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.

* Spenser

Thus go they both together to their gear .

(obsolete, UK, dialect) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.

(Wright)

* Latimer

That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.

Noun

(label) A long, straight stick, especially one used to assist in walking.

*{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny

, chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff .}}

A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written.

(label) The employees of a business.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 16, author=Denis Campbell, work=Guardian

, title= Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , passage=Most staff do not have the skills to cope with such challenging patients, who too often receive "impersonal" care and suffer from boredom, the first National Audit of Dementia found. It says hospitals should introduce "dementia champions".}}

(label) A mixture of plaster and fibre used as a temporary exterior wall covering.

A pole, stick, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Methought this staff , mine office badge in court, / Was broke in twain.

*Sir (c.1564-1627)

All his officers brake their staves'; but at their return new ' staves were delivered unto them.

A pole upon which a flag is supported and displayed.

(label) The rung of a ladder.

* Dr. J. Campbell (E. Brown's Travels)

I ascend at one [ladder] of six hundred and thirty-nine staves .

A series of verses so disposed that, when it is concluded, the same order begins again; a stanza; a stave.

* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Cowley found out that no kind of staff is proper for an heroic poem, as being all too lyrical.

(label) An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch.

(label) The grooved director for the gorget, or knife, used in cutting for stone in the bladder.

(label) An establishment of officers in various departments attached to an army, to a section of an army, or to the commander of an army. The general's staff consists of those officers about his person who are employed in carrying his commands into execution.