staple

Everyday

1. A small piece of thin bent wire pushed through papers to hold them together. tree →
2. To fasten things together with staples. tree →
3. A basic food or thing that people use or eat all the time, such as rice or bread. tree →
4. (adjective) Main, basic, most important: a staple food. tree →
5. A U-shaped metal pin hammered into wood to hold a wire. tree →

In the lessons

In the classroom a stapler puts staples in worksheets. In geography and history, «staple foods» are the main foods of a place: rice in much of Asia, potatoes in Ireland in the past, maize, wheat. In everyday life «a staple» is something you always have. Phrases: «staple food», «staple diet», «staple the pages», «a staple of».

Examples

• Please staple your pages together before you hand them in. tree →
• The stapler has run out of staples. tree →
• Rice is the staple food for billions of people. tree →
• Bread and milk are staples in our kitchen. tree →
• Fish was a staple of their diet. tree →
• The teacher stapled our drawings on the board. tree →
• Be careful not to staple your finger! tree →
• Pasta is a staple in our house. tree →
• But beside these more modern collections there exist in old and middle Irish a large number of hero-tales (class 2) which formed the staple of the old ollahms or bards. tree →

Note

«Staple» (a fastener, or a basic thing) is not «stable» (steady, or a building for horses). Stapling: drop the «e» before -ing. The machine is a «stapler». The adjective sense comes before a noun: «a staple food».