'To have the staff in one's own hand,' is to keep possession of one's own property, and, consequently, to retain authority and obedience. A very common expression used in good language. Mr. Carr has it in his Craven Glossary.
·noun The round of a ladder. II. Staff ·noun An arbor, as of a wheel or a pinion of a watch. III. ...
Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
A light pole erected in different parts of a ship, whereon to hoist and display the colours; as, the...
The Sailor's Word-Book
·noun A surveyor's instrument for measuring offsets. II. Cross-staff ·noun An instrument formerly u...
·vi An oscillating bar in a machine, as the lever of the bellows of a forge. ...
a quarter-staff. N. ...
A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose
1) a hook-stick, pronounced [GHIB]. York. 2) a quarter-staff. N. ...
a quarter -staff, with a short pair of tines at the end, called grains. S. ...
An instrument formerly used at sea for observing the sun's amplitude, formed of an arc of about 15 d...
A name formerly given to a peculiar sea-quadrant, because the back of the observer was turned toward...
See fore-staff. ...
A kind of quadrant formerly used in navigation. ...
This is otherwise the wrain-staff (which see). ...
In contradistinction to mast-head, is the staff on a battery, or on a ship's stern, where the colour...
An instrument formerly used at sea for taking the altitudes of heavenly bodies. The fore-staff, call...
A short piece of wood or iron, seized across the upper part of the shrouds at equal distances, to wh...
A short staff raised at the bowsprit-cap, upon which the union-jack is hoisted. ...
, or cross-staff. A mathematical instrument to take altitudes, consisting of a brass circle, divid...
A lath about 4 inches in breadth, used for curves in ship-building. ...
A designation conferred in 1863 upon masters of the fleet. ...
A designation conferred in 1863 on masters of fifteen years' seniority. ...
On the general staff of the army, or of a combined force. See staff. ...
See whipII ...
A stout billet of tough wood, tapered at its ends, so as to go into the ring of the wrain-bolt, to m...
In Fleet Street, in Farringdon Ward Without (Strype, ed. 1755-Boyle, 1799). Not named in the maps. ...
A Dictionary of London by Henry A Harben.
The surgeon, adjutant, paymaster, assistant-surgeon, and quarter-master of each regiment. ...
A tenement in the parish of St. John the Evangelist in Watling Street near St. Paul's Church now kno...
East out of Red Cross Street, in Cripplegate Ward Without (O. and M. 1677-Strype, ed. 1720). The si...
See Bear Inn. ...