1858. Baltimore Sun, 23 Aug. The verdict by twelve of seventeen of a jury giving 150,000 dollars as damages to a Land and Water-Power Company, at the Great Falls of the Potomac . . . is regarded as decidedly steep.
1882-3. Froude, Sketches, 164. Neither priest nor squire was able to establish any steep difference in outward advantages between himself and the commons among whom he lived.
Steeple, subs. (old colloquial).—A
woman's head-dress: 14th
Century. Also, later, a steeple-crowned
hat for either sex (see
quot. 1583).
1583. Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses (1585), f. 21. Long hats pearking up like the spere or shaft of a steeple, standyng a quarter of a yarde above the croune of their heades, some more, some lesse, as please the phantasies of their inconstant mindes.
1601. Wright, Passions of the Mind (1621), 330. Steepled hats.
c. 1704. [Ashton, Queen Anne, 11. 138]. The women wearing the old country steeple-crowned hat and simply made gowns.
1706. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus. The good old dames . . . In stiffen-body'd russet gowns, And on their heads old STEEPLE-CROWNS.
1837. Browning, Strafford. An old doublet and a steeple hat.
1888. Ency. Brit., vi. 469. Some of the more popular of these strange varieties of headgear have been distinguished as the 'horned,' the 'mitre,' 'the steeple '—in France known as the 'hennin'—and the butterfly.
Steeple-fair, subs. phr. (old).—The
simoniacal mart: in quot.
1599 = St. Paul's. [Formerly
church doors were plastered with
all kinds of miscellaneous advertisements:
see Siquis.]
1599. Hall, Satires, 111. v. 7. Thou servile foole, why coulds't thou not repaire To buy a benefice at steeple-faire.
1606. Return from Parnassus, iv. 2. Are not you the young drover of livings Academico told me of that haunts steeple-fairs?
Steeple-house, subs. phr. (old
Quakers').—A church (Grose).
d. 1690. Fox, Journal (Philadelphia), 167. The reason why I would not go into their steeple house was because I was to bear my testimony against it, and to bring all off from such places to the Spirit of God, that they might know their bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost.
1890. Whittier, Poems, 'The Old South.' There are steeple-houses on every hand, And pulpits that bless and ban; And the Lord will not grudge the single church, That is set apart for man.
Steer, verb. (nautical).—Steer
has furnished one or two colloquialisms:
thus TO STEER A
TRICK = to take a turn at the
wheel; to steer small = to
exercise care or skill; to give a
STEER = to give a TIP (q.v).
Steerer. See Bunco-steerer.
Steering-committee, subs. phr.
(American political).—A committee
of direction; WIREPULLERS
(q.v.).
Steever. See Stiver.
Stem, subs. (colloquial).—In pl. =
the legs.
Stem-winder, subs. phr. (American).—Anything
well-finished:
hence, the best of its kind.
[Stem-winder = keyless watch:
at the time a new and exquisite
improvement.]
Step, verb. (colloquial).—To make
off: also TO step it: see Absqualulate.
Also (military) =
to desert.
To step OUT, verb. phr. (common).—To die: see Aloft.
Step down and out! intj. phr. (American).—"Shut up! " "Stow it!" "You're done!"
