The word stake has several meanings:

1. A pointed wooden or metal post driven into the ground. You might hammer stakes into the dirt to hold up a tent, mark a property boundary, or support a young tree. Gardeners use stakes to keep tomato plants from falling over as they grow.
2. Something valuable you risk losing. When you have a stake in something, you stand to gain or lose based on what happens. If you spend weeks building a treehouse with friends, you have a stake in making sure it turns out well. Business partners each have a stake in their company's success. The phrase high stakes describes situations where you might win or lose something important. A high-stakes chess tournament might award a large prize and be very important for both the winner and the loser.
3. A share of ownership. If someone owns a stake in a company, they own part of it. An entrepreneur might sell stakes in her business to investors who provide money to help it grow.

As a verb, stake can mean to risk something valuable, as in stake your reputation on a promise.

The phrase stake a claim means to declare ownership or rights to something, like when gold miners in the Old West would stake their claims to pieces of land by literally hammering wooden stakes into the ground at the corners.