staircase
See also: stair-case
English
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edit- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈstɛɹˌkeɪs/
Audio (US): (file)
- Hyphenation: stair‧case
Noun
editstaircase (plural staircases)
- A flight of stairs; a stairway.
- 2011, “13 Candles”, performed by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats:
- I was on the staircase by the bell / Blinded by the black magician's spell
- A connected set of flights of stairs; a stairwell.
- 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:
- 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.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
- A set of locks (enclosed sections of waterway) mounted one above the next.
Derived terms
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editstairway
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Verb
editstaircase (third-person singular simple present staircases, present participle staircasing, simple past and past participle staircased)
- (transitive) To modify (a signal, a graph, etc.) to reduce a smooth curve to a series of discrete steps.
- (real estate) To increase one's share in a co-ownership.