step
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /stɛp/
homophone: steppe
rhymes: -ɛp
Forms: form: steps
form: stepping
form: stepped
form: stepped
form: stept
form: stept
form: stope
form: stope
Etymology: From Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-West Germanic *stappjan, from Proto-Germanic *stapjaną (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“to support, stomp, curse, be amazed”).
Cognate with West Frisian stappe (“to step”), North Frisian stape (“to walk, trudge”), Dutch stappen (“to step, walk”), Walloon steper (“to walk away, leave”), German stapfen (“to trudge, stomp, plod”) and further to Slavic Polish stąpać (“to stomp, stamp, step, tread”), Russian ступать (stupatʹ) and Polish stopień (“step, stair, rung, degree”), Russian степень (stepenʹ). Related to stamp, stomp.
Senses: examples: text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession.
examples: text: to step to one of the neighbors
text: Some days later it happened that young Heriotside was stepping home over the Lang Muir about ten at night, it being his first jaunt from home since his arm had mended.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
text: Well... It's hard to talk about in front of the children. Can we step outside?
ref: 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Twilight Town:
glosses: To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.
examples: text: Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:
glosses: To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
examples: text: At arms length with left hands clasped they moved back where facing each other they stepped in time to their dance embrace.
ref: 2013, Calvin Vraa, The Last Pathway Home, page 179:
text: She clapped, but instead of walking her back to the table, Alex took her hand and pulled her gently towards him, slipping his arm around her waist again and stepping her off on the first beat of the next dance.
ref: 2013, Jean Fullerton, Call Nurse Millie:
text: He stepped to the beat of one of their favorite songs.
ref: 2017, Christine Schimpf, A Christmas Kind of Perfect:
text: He put on a tame version of the 1960s song “The Letter,” wrapped his right arm around my waist, raised my right hand, draped it over his left, and we stepped, stepped, and back stepped to the beat.
ref: 2018, Paula Poundstone, The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness, page 180:
glosses: To dance.
examples: text: They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity.
ref: 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book preface”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
glosses: To move mentally; to go in imagination.
examples: text: One of the women, Elsie, stepped her foot inside to help the woman.
ref: 2010, Charles E. Miller, Winds of Mercy: 40 Short Stories, page 219:
glosses: To set, as the foot.
examples: text: We put everything straight, stepped the long-boat's mast for our skipper, who was in charge of her, and I was not sorry to sit down for a moment.
ref: 1898, Joseph Conrad, Youth:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
glosses: To advance a process gradually, one step at a time.
examples: text: You best step, cuz things are about to jump off.
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: To depart.
examples: text: You tryna be steppin right now? You better bring it if so.
antonyms: step off#Verb
coordinate_terms: step up#Verb
glosses: To be confrontational.
Derived terms: cross-step
goose-step
misstep
roll step
smell what someone is stepping in
step and repeat
step aside
step back
step between
step dance
step down
step forth
step forward
step-in
step in
step into
step into someone's shoes
step into the breach
step it
step lively
step-off
step off
step on
step on a duck
step on a frog
step on a rake
step on it
step on someone's lines
step on someone's toes
step on the gas
step on the laughs
step out
step out of line
step out on someone
stepover
step over
stepping feet illusion
stepping stone
step short
step-through
step-thru
step to
step up
step up on
step up to the plate
you can't step in the same river twice