steep
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew-
Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-der.?
Proto-Germanic *staupaz
Proto-West Germanic *staup
Old English stēap
Middle English steep
English steep
From Middle English steep, from Old English stēap (“high”), from Proto-Germanic *staupaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push, stick”).
Compare Old Frisian stāp ("high, towering"; > Modern Saterland Frisian stiep (“steep”)), Dutch stoop (“grand; proud”), Middle High German stouf (“towering cliff, precipice”), Middle High German stief (“steep”)). The Proto-Indo-European root (and related) has many and varied descendants, including English stub; compare also Scots stap (“to strike, to forcibly insert”).
The sense of “sharp slope” is attested circa 1200; the sense “expensive” is attested US 1856.
Inflected forms:
form: steeper
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: steepest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: steeps
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: steeps
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: steeping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: steeped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: steeped
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward at an angle near vertical.
pos: adj
examples: a steep hill or mountain; a steep roof; a steep ascent; a steep barometric gradient
They will be called upon to deal with freight trains of up to 900 tons over gradients considerably steeper than those of the Central Section—for example, the frequent stretches of 1 in 100 between Victoria and the Medway towns—and their running to fast schedules will include the haulage of the "Night Ferry", which may load up to as much as 700 tons, and fully-fitted trains of 30 or more heavy Continental train ferry wagons.
Up these steep walkways cannelured for footpurchase, the free passage of roaches.
[…] Category Two implement hitches and doubled high-traction agricultural tires hung four to each massive rear axle to breast the steepest, softest dune or guckiest swamp […]
gloss: Expensive.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: Twenty quid for a shave? That's a bit steep.
gloss: Difficult to access; not easy reached; lofty; elevated; high.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erected
gloss: resulting in a mast or windshield angle that strongly diverges from the perpendicular.
pos: adj
examples: The steep rake of the windshield enhances the fast lines of the exterior.
gloss: The steep side of a mountain etc.; a slope or acclivity.
pos: noun
examples: It ended precipitously in a dark and narrow ravine, formed on the other side by an opposite mountain, the lofty steep of which was crested by a city gently rising on a gradual slope
[L]ess scared, but not built for gazelle cavorting, so awkward on the steep that she had to take to hands and knees, and looked more like a monkey.
gloss: To soak or wet thoroughly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They steep skins in a tanning solution to create leather.
The tea is steeping.
A Greek historian Phylarchus describes a white root indigenous to India that caused eunuchism when a person bathed in water in which the root was steeped.
In refreshing dews to steep / The little, trembling flowers.
gloss: To imbue with something; to be deeply immersed in.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: a town steeped in history
The learned of the nation were steeped in Latin.
We fought against each other, two brothers steeped in blood / But I never doubted that your heart was broken in the flood / And though we had to shoot you down in golden Béal na mBláth / I always knew that Ireland lost her greatest son of all.
gloss: To make tea (or other beverage) by placing leaves in hot water.
pos: verb
Derived words: ensteep
steep-down
steepen
Steep Falls
steeple
steeply
steepness
steep-slope roof
steepy
unsteep
resteep
steepable
insteep
rot-steep
unsteeped
Translations: