step
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stɛp/
homophone: steppe
rhymes: -ɛp
Forms: form: steps
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: Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
ref: 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
glosses: An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
examples: text: The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.
ref: 1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture:
text: One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.
ref: 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
glosses: A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder.
glosses: The part of a spade, digging stick or similar tool that a digger's foot rests against and presses on when digging; an ear, a foot-rest.
topics: arts
crafts
glassblowing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: The button joining a glass's stem to its foot.
examples: text: He improved step by step, or by steps.
text: The first step is to find a job.
glosses: A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
examples: text: The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.
glosses: A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
examples: text: One step is generally about three feet, but may be more or less.
text: To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy.
ref: 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.
examples: text: It is but a step.
glosses: A small space or distance.
glosses: A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
examples: text: The approach of a man is often known by his step.
text: Warwick passed through one of the wide brick arches and traversed the building with a leisurely step.
ref: 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
glosses: A gait; manner of walking.
examples: text: The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world.
ref: 1717, Alexander Pope, Preface to his collection of poems:
text: Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.
ref: c. 1792, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm:
text: I have lately taken steps[…]to relieve the old gentleman's distresses.
ref: 1879, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days:
text: Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said.
ref: 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)
glosses: Proceeding; measure; action; act.
examples: text: Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A walk; passage.
glosses: A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
qualifier: machines
glosses: One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs.
qualifier: machines
glosses: A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
examples: Usage note: The word tone is often used as the name of this interval; but there is evident incongruity in using tone for indicating the interval between tones. As the word scale is derived from the Italian scala, a ladder, the intervals may well be called steps.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.
examples: text: A change of position effected by a motion of translation will be called a step.
ref: 1878, William Kingdon Clifford, Elements of Dynamic: An Introduction to the Study of Motion:
glosses: A change of position effected by a motion of translation.
examples: text: Printing from 0 to 9 with a step of 3 will display 0, 3, 6 and 9.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.
glosses: Kick scooter.
glosses: Stepping (style of dance)
Synonyms: sense: pace
word: stride
Hyponyms: back step
half step
etc. see under back
half
cyclic step
Derived terms: 13th step
a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
baby step
between-step
body step
catch step
coaster step
corbie-step
corbie step
cross-step
dance step
Eureka step
false step
fire step
fish steps
goose step
goose-step
half-step
high-step
in step
Irish step dancing
kick-step
mast step
misstep
naughty step
oblique step
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind
one-step
one step ahead
one step at a time
out of step
Penrose steps
pep in one's step
Pinoy step
rest step
retrace one's steps
route step
single-step
spring in one's step
stair-step
step aerobics
step-by-step
step by step
stepchair
step change
step chart
step climb
step-climb
step deal
step flashing
step foot
step-free
step function
step grate
step ladder
step machine
stepmeal
stepper
step pyramid
step rocket
step show
step stool
step time
step up one's game
stepwise
take a step back
take steps
Tecumseh step test
Tennessee quick step
the first step is always the hardest
three-step snake
time step
tread in someone's steps
T-step
twelve-step program
two-step
two steps ahead
umbrella step
watch one's step
whole step
with extra steps