Ale-stake

The pole set up before ale-houses by way of “sign.” A bush was very often fixed to its top. A tavern.

“A garland had he set upon his head

As great as it werein for an ale-stake.”

Chaucer.

“I know many an ale-stake.”

Hawkins: English Drama, i. 100.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.