/stiːp/
OriginFrom Middle English steep, from Old English stēap (“high”), from Proto-Germanic *staupaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, stick”).
Compare Old Frisian stāp ("high, towering"; > Modern Saterland Frisian stiep (“steep”)), Dutch stoop (“grand; proud”), Middle High German stouf (“towering cliff, precipice”), Middle High German stief (“steep”)). The Proto-Indo-European root (and related) has many and varied descendants, including English stub; compare also Scots stap (“to strike, to forcibly insert”).
The sense of “sharp slope” is attested circa 1200; the sense “expensive” is attested US 1856.
- Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward at an angle near vertical.
“a steep hill or mountain; a steep roof; a steep ascent; a steep barometric gradient”
“They will be called upon to deal with freight trains of up to 900 tons over gradients considerably steeper than those of the Central Section—for example, the frequent stretches of 1 in 100 between Vic”
“Up these steep walkways cannelured for footpurchase, the free passage of roaches.”
- informalExpensive.
“Twenty quid for a shave? That's a bit steep.”
- obsoleteDifficult to access; not easy reached; lofty; elevated; high.
“Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erected”
- resulting in a mast or windshield angle that strongly diverges from the perpendicular.
“The steep rake of the windshield enhances the fast lines of the exterior.”
- The steep side of a mountain etc.; a slope or acclivity.
“It ended precipitously in a dark and narrow ravine, formed on the other side by an opposite mountain, the lofty steep of which was crested by a city gently rising on a gradual slope”
“[L]ess scared, but not built for gazelle cavorting, so awkward on the steep that she had to take to hands and knees, and looked more like a monkey.”
- countable, uncountableA liquid used in a steeping process
“Corn steep has many industrial uses.”
- countable, uncountableA rennet bag.
- transitiveTo soak or wet thoroughly.
“They steep skins in a tanning solution to create leather.”
“The tea is steeping.”
“A Greek historian Phylarchus describes a white root indigenous to India that caused eunuchism when a person bathed in water in which the root was steeped.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo imbue with something; to be deeply immersed in.
“a town steeped in history”
“The learned of the nation were steeped in Latin.”
“We fought against each other, two brothers steeped in blood / But I never doubted that your heart was broken in the flood / And though we had to shoot you down in golden Béal na mBláth / I always knew”
- To make tea (or other beverage) by placing leaves in hot water.
Formssteeper(comparative) · steepest(superlative) · steeps(plural) · steeps(present, singular, third-person) · steeping(participle, present) · steeped(participle, past) · steeped(past)