Open main menu
Wiktionary

step

See also: STEP, štep, stęp, and step-

Contents

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia
 
Two steps [2] of a stairs

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English steppen, from Old English steppan (“to step, go, proceed, advance”), stepe (“step”), from Proto-Germanic *stapjaną (“to step”), *stapiz (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European *stÁb-, *stÁbʰ-, *stemb-, *stembʰ- (“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.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

step (plural steps)

  1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384:
      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.
    • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:step.
  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.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Henry Wotton
      The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
      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, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
    • 1967, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 122:
      Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.
    • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:step.
  3. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
    He improved step by step, or by steps.
    The first step is to find a job.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Newton
      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 philosophy.
  6. A small space or distance.
    It is but a step.
  7. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
  8. A gait; manner of walking.
    The approach of a man is often known by his step.
  9. Proceeding; measure; action; act.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
      The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Cowper
      Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.
    • (Can we date this quote?)George Washington Cable
      I have lately taken steps […] to relieve the old gentleman's distresses.
    • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)
      Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said.
      Audio (US)
      		(file)
  10. (plural) A walk; passage.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree.
  11. (plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
  12. (nautical) A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specif., a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
  13. (machines) One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs.
  14. (machines) A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
  15. (music) The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.
    Usage note: 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.
  16. (kinematics) A change of position effected by a motion of translation.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of William Kingdon Clifford to this entry?)
  17. (programming) A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.
    Printing from 0 to 9 with a step of 3 will display 0, 3, 6 and 9.
  18. (slang) A stepsibling.
    • 2016, Robert M. Herzog, A World Between
      So for Richard and Barbara, Jeff and Kari, the impossibly varied collection of steps and halves that is another legacy of my father.

SynonymsEdit

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}} to add them to the appropriate sense(s).

HyponymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

step (third-person singular simple present steps, present participle stepping, simple past stepped or (dated) stept or (obsolete) stope, past participle stepped or (dated) stept or (obsolete) stopen)

  1. (intransitive) 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.
  2. (intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.
    • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
      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 passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
    to step to one of the neighbors
  3. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
    • Home the swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold. — James Thomson
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
    • They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity. — Alexander Pope
  5. (transitive) To set, as the foot.
  6. (transitive, nautical) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
    • 1898, Joseph Conrad, Youth
      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.

Derived termsEdit

terms derived from the verb step
  • step out
    • (military) To increase the length, but not the rapidity, of the step, extending it to thirty-tree inches
    • To go out for a short distance or a short time
  • step short (military) (to diminish the length or rapidity of the step according to the established rules)
  • step to (To challenge, confront or attempt to intimidate or fight)
  • step off (to measure by steps, or paces; hence, to divide, as a space, or to form a series of marks, by successive measurements, as with dividers)
  • step up

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See alsoEdit

Further readingEdit

AnagramsEdit

CzechEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

NounEdit

step f

  1. steppe
DeclensionEdit
Declension
singular plural
nominative step stepi
genitive stepi stepí
dative stepi stepem
accusative step stepi
vocative stepi stepi
locative stepi stepech
instrumental stepí stepmi

Etymology 2Edit

NounEdit

step m inanimate

  1. tap dance
DeclensionEdit
Declension
singular plural
nominative step stepy
genitive stepu stepů
dative stepu stepům
accusative step stepy
vocative stepe stepy
locative stepu stepech
instrumental stepem stepy

Further readingEdit

DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from English step (“footrest on a bicycle”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

step f (plural steps, diminutive stepje n)

  1. kick scooter
    Synonyms: autoped, trottinette
  2. (dated) A mounting bracket on a bicycle.

Derived termsEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

NounEdit

step

  1. Alternative form of steppe

PolishEdit

 
Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

step m inan

  1. (often in the plural) steppe

DeclensionEdit

declension of step
singular plural
nominative step stepy
genitive stepu stepów
dative stepowi stepom
accusative step stepy
instrumental stepem stepami
locative stepie stepach
vocative stepie stepy

Further readingEdit

  • step in Polish dictionaries at PWN

SpanishEdit

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=step&oldid=53205819"