steerage

English

Etymology

steer +‎ -age

Noun

steerage (countable and uncountable, plural steerages)

1. (uncountable) The art of steering.
2. (countable) The section of a passenger ship that provided inexpensive accommodation with no individual cabins.
   • 1896, Henry Lawson, For`ard:

     It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,
     For there's near a hundred for'ard, and they're stowed away like sheep

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 1, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[1]:

     “I have visited my quarters, and find them very comfortable. […] Steerage is like everything else maritime […] vastly improved since Robert Louis Stevenson took his trip third class to New York.”

3. (countable) The effect of the helm on a ship.

Derived terms

• steerageway

Translations

cheapest class of accommodation in a ship

• Bulgarian: трета палуба f (treta paluba)
• German: Zwischendeck (de) n
• Hebrew: סִפּוּן בֵּּינַיִם (he) m (sipun beynayim), בֵּינַת סִפּוּנִים (he) f (beynat sipunim)
• Hungarian: fedélköz (hu)
• Maori: tiareti, tīreti
• Spanish: antecámara (es) f

Anagrams

• eagerest, etageres, rat-geese