step

An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.

Noun

  1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
    • 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...
  2. 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.
    • The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot. - 1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture:
    • 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,...
    • Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him. - 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
  3. 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.
  4. The button joining a glass's stem to its foot.
  5. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
    • He improved step by step, or by steps.
    • The first step is to find a job.
  6. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
    • The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.
  7. The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.
    • One step is generally about three feet, but may be more or less.
    • 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...
  8. A small space or distance.
    • It is but a step.
  9. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
  10. A gait; manner of walking.
    • The approach of a man is often known by his step.
    • Warwick passed through one of the wide brick arches and traversed the building with a leisurely step. - 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.:...
  11. Proceeding; measure; action; act.
    • The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world. - 1717, Alexander Pope, Preface to his collection of poems:
    • Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. - c. 1792, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm:
    • I have lately taken steps[…]to relieve the old gentleman's distresses. - 1879, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days:
  12. A walk; passage.
    • Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson,...

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *stapjaną Proto-West Germanic *stappjan Old English stæppan Middle English steppen English step 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.

Forms

steps

Synonyms

stride

Hyponyms

back step half step etc. see under back half cyclic step

Derived

13th step a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step baby step backstep between-step body step bootstep catch step catstep clownstep coaster step corbie-step corbie step counterstep cross-step crowstep dance step doorstep downstep eigenstep Eureka step Eurostep false step fire step

Noun colloquial

  1. A stepchild.
    • [Krazy Kat, after complimenting a woman on her nice polite little child:] Boy or girl? [Woman:] Step – but well brung up. - 1934 September 6, George Herriman, Krazy Kat, comic strip, →ISBN, page 234:
  2. A stepsibling.
    • So for Richard and Barbara, Jeff and Kari, the impossibly varied collection of steps and halves that is another legacy of my father. - 2016, Robert M. Herzog, A World Between:

Origin

Clipping of stepchild and stepsibling.

Forms

steps

Related

step-

Verb

  1. 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.
    • 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...
  2. To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.
    • Come one, come all. Step right up!
    • to step to one of the neighbors
    • 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. - 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
  3. To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
    • Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold. - a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […],...
  4. To dance.
    • At arms length with left hands clasped they moved back where facing each other they stepped in time to their dance embrace. - 2013, Calvin Vraa, The Last Pathway Home, page 179:
    • 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. - 2013,...
    • He stepped to the beat of one of their favorite songs. - 2017, Christine Schimpf, A Christmas Kind of Perfect:
  5. To move mentally; to go in imagination.
    • They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity. - 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book preface”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:...
  6. To set, as the foot.
    • One of the women, Elsie, stepped her foot inside to help the woman. - 2010, Charles E. Miller, Winds of Mercy: 40 Short Stories, page 219:
  7. To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
    • 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. - 1898, Joseph Conrad, Youth:
  8. To advance a process gradually, one step at a time.
  9. To depart.
    • You best step, cuz things are about to jump off.
  10. To be confrontational.
    • You tryna be steppin right now? You better bring it if so.

    Antonyms: step off

    Coordinate Terms: step up

Forms

steps stepping stepped stept stope

Derived

backstep bestep cross-step downstep Eurostep goose-step misstep outstep overstep quickstep restep roll step sidestep 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