Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

4 entries under this word

Step

Stĕp, v. i.

verbintransitive

[imp. & p. p. STEPPED (stĕpt); p. pr. & vb. n. STEPPING.] [A-S. steppan, stapan, O. Sax. stapan, O. Fries. steppa, stapa, L. Ger. & D. stappen, O. H. Ger. stephan, Up. Ger. stapfen, allied to Gr. στείβειν, to tread.]

Sense 1. To move the foot; to advance or recede by a movement of the foot or feet.

Sense 2. To walk a little distance; as, to step to one of the neighbors.

Sense 3. To walk gravely, slowly, or resolutely.

Home the swain retreats. His flock before him stepping to the fold. Thomson.

To step aside, to walk to a little distance; to retire from company.—To step back, to move mentally toward the past; to carry the mind back. “They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity.” Pope.—To step forth, to move or come forth.—To step in or into. (a.) To walk or advance into a place or state, or to advance suddenly in. “Whosoever first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” John v. 4. (b.) To enter for a short time; as, I just stepped into the house. (c.) To obtain possession without trouble; to enter upon suddenly; as, to step into an estate.—To step out, to increase the length, but not the rapidity, of the step, extending it to thirty-three inches.—To step short (Mil.), to diminish the length or rapidity of the step, according to the established rules.

Stĕp, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. 1. To set, as the foot. Sir, step your foot, give answer. Shak. 2. To fix the foot of, as a mast, in its step; to erect. Totten.

Stēp, n.

noun

n. [A-S. stepe, stap, O. Fries. & D. stap, O. H. Ger. stapl, stapho, O. Ger. stapfe.]

  1. An advance or movement made by one removal of the foot; a pace.
  2. One remove in ascending or descending; a stair.

The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot. Wotton.

  1. The space passed by the foot in walking or running; as, the step of one foot is generally about 28 inches, but may be more or less.
  2. A small space or distance; as, it is distant but a step.
  3. Gradation; degree; as, to advance in improvement step by step, or by steps.
  4. The act of advancement; progression; decisive gain or advantage.

To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterward tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a great step in philosophy. Newton.

  1. A print or impression of the foot; footstep; footprint; track; trace; vestige.
  2. Gait; manner of walking; as, the approach of a man is often known by his step.
  3. Proceeding; measure; action.

The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world. Pope. Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. Cooper.

  1. The round or rundle of a ladder.
  2. (pl.) Walk; passage.

Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree In this deep forest. Dryden. 12. (Mus.) A degree;—a name sometimes given to one of the larger diatonic degrees or intervals of the scale, as between one and two. ☞ 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.

  1. (pl.) A portable frame-work of stairs, much used in doors in reaching to a high position.
  2. (Naut.) (a.) A block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast. (b.) A piece of wood in which another is fixed upright.
  3. (Mach.) A kind of bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.

Stēp

[A-S. steóp, from steópan, stýpan, stēpan, O. H. Ger. stiufan, to bereave; O. Fries. stiap, stiep, steif, Icel. stiūp, Sw. stjuf, stjuf, Dan. stif, sted, L. Ger. steef, O. H. Ger. stauf, N. H. Ger. & D. stief, Icel. stjūpr, step-son, stjūpa, step-father, stjūpa, step-mother.] A prefix used in composition before father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, &c., to indicate that the person thus spoken of is not a blood-relative, but is a relative by the marriage of a parent; as, a step-mother to X is the wife of the father of X, married by him after the death of the mother of X.