STAGE, n. [G.] Properly, one step or degree of elevation, and what the French call etage, we call a story. Hence,

1. A floor or platform of any kind elevated above the ground or common surface, as for an exhibition of something to public view; as, a stage for a mountebank; a stage for speakers in public; a stage for mechanics. Seamen use floating stages, and stages suspended by the side of a ship, for calking and repairing.
2. The floor on which theatrical performances are exhibited, as distinct from the pit, &c. Hence,
3. The theater; the place of scenic entertainments. Knights, squires and steeds must enter on the stage. – Pope.
4. Theatrical representations. It is contended that the stage is a school of morality. Let it be inquired, where is the person whom the stage has reformed?
5. A place where any thing is publicly exhibited. When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of fools. – Shak.
6. Place of action or performance; as, the stage of life.
7. A place of rest on a journey, or where a relay of horses is taken. When we arrive at the next stage, we will take some refreshment. Hence,
8. The distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of fifteen miles.
9. A single step; degree of advance; degree of progression, either in increase or decrease, in rising or falling, or in any change of state; as, the several stages of a war; the stages of civilization or improvement; stages of growth in an animal or plant; stages of a disease, of decline or recovery; the several stages of human life.
10. [instead of stage-coach, or stage-wagon.] A coach or other carriage running regularly from one place to another for the conveyance of passengers. I went in the sixpenny stage. – Swift. A parcel sent by the stage. – Cowper. [American usage.]

To exhibit publicly. [Not in use.] – Shak.

1. A floor or story of a house.
   
   
   [Obs.] Wyclif.
2. To exhibit upon a stage, or as upon a stage; to display publicly.
   
   
   Shak.
3. An elevated platform on which an orator may speak, a play be performed, an exhibition be presented, or the like.
4. A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, or the like; a scaffold; a staging.
5. A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
6. The floor for scenic performances; hence, the theater; the playhouse; hence, also, the profession of representing dramatic compositions; the drama, as acted or exhibited.
   
   

   Knights, squires, and steeds, must enter on the stage. Pope.

   Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage,
   Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age. C. Sprague.

7. A place where anything is publicly exhibited; the scene of any noted action or carrer; the spot where any remarkable affair occurs.
   
   

   When we are born, we cry that we are come
   To this stage of fools. Shak.

   Music and ethereal mirth
   Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring. Miton.

8. The platform of a microscope, upon which an object is placed to be viewed. See Illust. of Microscope.
9. A place of rest on a regularly traveled road; a stage house; a station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
10. A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road; as, a stage of ten miles.
    
    

    A stage . . . signifies a certain distance on a road. Jeffrey.

    He traveled by gig, with his wife, his favorite horse performing the journey by easy stages. Smiles.

11. A degree of advancement in any pursuit, or of progress toward an end or result.
    
    

    Such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in the progress of society. Macaulay.

12. A large vehicle running from station to station for the accomodation of the public; a stagecoach; an omnibus.
    
    
    "A parcel sent you by the stage." Cowper.

    I went in the sixpenny stage. Swift.

13. One of several marked phases or periods in the development and growth of many animals and plants; as, the larval stage; pupa stage; zœa stage.
    
    

    Stage box, a box close to the stage in a theater. -- Stage carriage, a stagecoach. -- Stage door, the actor's and workmen's entrance to a theater. -- Stage lights, the lights by which the stage in a theater is illuminated. -- Stage micrometer, a graduated device applied to the stage of a microscope for measuring the size of an object. -- Stage wagon, a wagon which runs between two places for conveying passengers or goods. -- Stage whisper, a loud whisper, as by an actor in a theater, supposed, for dramatic effect, to be unheard by one or more of his fellow actors, yet audible to the audience; an aside.