adjective
1staler, stalest
- (of food) no longer fresh and pleasant to eat; hard, musty, or dry（食物）不新鲜的; 走味的; 变硬的; 发霉的; 干的：
stale bread.
不新鲜的面包。
1.1
- no longer new and interesting or exciting陈旧的, 不再有趣的; 不再有激情的：
their marriage had gone stale.
他们的婚姻已不再有激情了。
1.2
- predic.(of a person) no longer able to perform well or creatively because of having done something for too long（人）（因长时间做某项工作而）疲软的; 失去创造力的：
a top executive tends to get stale.
高层管理人员容易失去创造力。
1.3
- (of a cheque or legal claim) invalid because out of date（支票, 合法要求）（因过期而）失效的。
- make or become stale（使）不新鲜, （使）走味; （使）陈旧：
no obj. she would cut up yesterday's leftover bread, staling now.她会把昨天剩下的面包切成小块, 而那面包现在已经不新鲜了。
派生词
stalely
adverbstaleness
noun词源
Middle English （describing beer in the sense 'clear from long standing, strong'）： probably from Anglo-Norman French and Old French, from estaler 'to halt'：compare with the verb STALL.