stake

1. A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay. · We have surveyor's stakes at all four corners of this field, to mark exactly its borders.
2. A piece of wood driven in the ground, placed in the middle of the court, that is used as the finishing point after scoring 12 hoops in croquet.
3. A stick or similar object (e.g., steel channel or angle stock) inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, flat car, flatbed trailer, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off; often connected in a grid forming a stakebody.
4. The piece of timber to which a person condemned to death was affixed to be burned. · Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
5. A share or interest in a business or a given situation. · The owners let the managers eventually earn a stake in the business.
6. That which is laid down as a wager; that which is staked or hazarded; a pledge.
7. A small anvil usually furnished with a tang to enter a hole in a bench top, as used by tinsmiths, blacksmiths, etc., for light work, punching hole in or cutting a work piece, or for specific forming techniques etc.
8. A territorial division comprising all the Mormons (typically several thousand) in a geographical area.

Plural stakes