Staple

n.	1.	A settled mart; an emporium; a city or town to which merchants brought commodities for sale or exportation in bulk; a place for wholesale traffic. The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade. - Arbuthnot. For the increase of trade and the encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool. - Sir W. Scott.
	2.	Hence: Place of supply; source; fountain head. Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news. Whenever there was a rumor that any thing important had happened or was about to happen, people hastened thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain head. - Macaulay.
	3.	The principal commodity of traffic in a market; a principal commodity or production of a country or district; as, wheat, maize, and cotton are great staples of the United States. We should now say, Cotton is the great staple, that is, the established merchandise, of Manchester. - Trench.
	4.	The principal constituent in anything; chief item.
	5.	Unmanufactured material; raw material.
	6.	The fiber of wool, cotton, flax, or the like; as, a coarse staple; a fine staple; a long or short staple.
	7.	A loop of metal such as iron, or a bar or wire, bent and formed with two points to be driven into wood, to hold a hook, pin, or the like.
	8.	A small loop of metal such as steel, bent into a U-shape with the points sharpened, used to fasten sheets of paper together by driving the staple{8} through the stacked sheets and into a formed receptacle which curls the ends in and backward, thus holding the papers firmly together; also, a similar, slightly larger such fastener which may be driven into wood to fasten objects to a wooden backing.
	9.	(Mining) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.
	10.	A district granted to an abbey.
a.	1.	Pertaining to, or being a market or staple for, commodities; as, a staple town.
	2.	Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled; as, a staple trade.
	3.	Fit to be sold; marketable.
	4.	Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief. Wool, the great staple commodity of England. - Hallam.
v. t.	1.	To sort according to its staple; as, to staple cotton. [imp. & p. p. stapled (-p'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. stapling.]
	2.	To fasten together with a staple{9} or staples; as, to staple a check to a letter.

Noun	1.	staple - (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant Synonyms: basic
	2.	staple - material suitable for manufacture or use or finishing Synonyms: raw material
	3.	staple - a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables
	4.	staple - paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire that can fasten papers together
Verb	1.	staple - secure or fasten with a staple or staples; "staple the papers together" Antonyms: unstaple - take the staples off; "unstaple the piece of paper from the receipt"
Adj.	1.	staple - necessary foods or commodities; "wheat is a staple crop"

STAPLE, intern. law. The right of staple as exercised by a people upon foreign merchants, is defined to be, that they may not allow them to set their merchandises and wares to sale but in a certain place.
     2. This practice is not in use in the United States. 1 Chit. Com. Law, 103; 4 Inst. 238; Malone, Lex Mere. 237; Bac. Ab. Execution, B 1. Vide Statute Staple.

1.	(language)	STAPLE - A programming language written at Manchester (University?) and used at ICL in the early 1970s for writing the test suites. STAPLE was based on Algol 68 and had a very advanced optimising compiler.
2.		Staple - Saint Andrews Applicative Persistent Language. Language combining functional programming with persistent storage, developed at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Tony Davie, .

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