Etimology
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.
noun
step (plural steps)
An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
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 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.
A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running.
A small space or distance.
A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track.
A gait; manner of walking.
Proceeding; measure; action; act.
(in the plural) A walk; passage.
(in the plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position.
(nautical) A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specifically, a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast.
(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.
(machines) A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.
(music) The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale.
(kinematics) A change of position effected by a motion of translation.
(programming) A constant difference between consecutive values in a series.
(slang, primarily Netherlands) Kick scooter.
Examples
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.
The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.
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.
Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.
He improved step by step, or by steps.
The first step is to find a job.
The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.
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 philosophy.
It is but a step.
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.
The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world.
Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.
I have lately taken steps […] to relieve the old gentleman's distresses.
Moon has also requested that government officials take additional steps to help fight pollution, his spokesman said. Audio
Audio
Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree.
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.
A change of position effected by a motion of translation will be called a step.
Printing from 0 to 9 with a step of 3 will display 0, 3, 6 and 9.
Related words
synonyms
(pace): stride
hyponyms
back step, half step, etc. see under back, half, etc.
cyclic step
verb
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)
(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.
(intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance.
(intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
To dance.
(intransitive, figuratively) To move mentally; to go in imagination.
(transitive) To set, as the foot.
(transitive, nautical) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect.
(transitive) To advance a process gradually, one step at a time.
Examples
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
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.
Home from his Morning-Task , the Swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold.
At arms length with left hands clasped they moved back where facing each other they stepped in time to their dance embrace.
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.
He stepped to the beat of one of their favorite songs.
He put on a tame version of the 1960s song “The Letter,” wrapped his right arm around my waist, raised my right hand, draped it over his left, and we stepped, stepped, and back stepped to the beat.
They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity.
One of the women, Elsie, stepped her foot inside to help the woman.
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.
Etimology
Clipping of stepchild and stepsibling.
noun
step (plural steps)
(colloquial) A stepchild.
(colloquial) A stepsibling.
Examples
[Krazy Kat, after complimenting a woman on her nice polite little child:] Boy or girl? [Woman:] Step – but well brung up.
So for Richard and Barbara, Jeff and Kari, the impossibly varied collection of steps and halves that is another legacy of my father.