stable

Meanings

Noun

• A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) animals with hoofs, especially horses.
• All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
• A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
• An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.
• A group of prostitutes managed by one pimp.
• A group of people who are looked after, mentored, or trained in one place or for a particular purpose or profession.

Verb

• to put or keep (an animal) in a stable.
• to dwell in a stable.
• to park (a rail vehicle).

Adjective

• Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.
• Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.
• That maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.

Related

Opposite words

• instable
• mobile
• unstable
• varying

Origin

• From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable and Old French estable, from Latin stabulum ("stall, stand").
• From Middle English stable, from Anglo-Norman stable, stabel, from Latin stabilis ("firm, steadfast") (itself from stare + -abilis).