E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sty or Stye.
Christ styed up to heaven. Halliwell gives sty = a ladder, and the verb would be to go to heaven, as it were, by Jacob’s ladder. The Anglo-Saxon verb stigan means to ascend.
1
“The beast …
Thought with his winges to stye above the ground.”
