STEP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Step

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/stɛp/ Listen

Step

noun

1.

Any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal. Synonym: measure. "The police took steps to reduce crime"

2.

The distance covered by a step. Synonyms: footstep, pace, stride.

3.

The act of changing location by raising the foot and setting it down.

4.

Support consisting of a place to rest the foot while ascending or descending a stairway. Synonym: stair.

5.

Relative position in a graded series. Synonym: gradation. "Subtle gradations in color" , "Keep in step with the fashions"

6.

A short distance. Synonym: stone's throw.

7.

The sound of a step of someone walking. Synonyms: footfall, footstep.

8.

A musical interval of two semitones. Synonyms: tone, whole step, whole tone.

9.

A mark of a foot or shoe on a surface. Synonyms: footmark, footprint.

10.

A solid block joined to the beams in which the heel of a ship's mast or capstan is fixed.

11.

A sequence of foot movements that make up a particular dance. Synonym: dance step.

verb

(past & past part. stepped; pres. part. stepping)

1.

Shift or move by taking a step.

2.

Put down or press the foot, place the foot. Synonym: tread. "Step on the brake"

3.

Cause (a computer) to execute a single command.

4.

Treat badly. Synonyms: abuse, ill-treat, ill-use, maltreat, mistreat. "She is always stepping on others to get ahead"

5.

Furnish with steps.

6.

Move with one's feet in a specific manner.

7.

Walk a short distance to a specified place or in a specified manner.

8.

Place (a ship's mast) in its step.

9.

Measure (distances) by pacing. Synonym: pace.

10.

Move or proceed as if by steps into a new situation. "He won't step into his father's footsteps"

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Etymology of 'Step'

Related searches:

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Step" Quotes from Famous Books

... asks the prosecutor, did not Smerdyakov confess in his last letter? Why did his conscience prompt him to one step and not to both? But, excuse me, conscience implies penitence, and the suicide may not have felt penitence, but only despair. Despair and penitence are two very different things. Despair may be vindictive and irreconcilable, and the suicide, laying his hands on himself, may well have ...

— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... The other, and still more important event, was the institution by Whitefield of field-preaching. The idea had occurred to him in London, where he found congregations too numerous for the church in which he preached, but the first actual step was taken in the neighborhood of Bristol. At a time when he was thus deprived of the chief normal means of exercising his talents his attention was called to the condition of the colliers of Kingswood. He was filled ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various

... hair is faded, My old friend, And your step a trifle jaded, My old friend, Old Time, with all his lures In the trophies he secures, Leaves young that heart of ...

— Songs of Friendship • James Whitcomb Riley

... five years since, a convalescent leaning upon his staff, he had felt himself taken possession of by a loathing of material pleasures. From that time every one of his days had been marked by a step in advance. ...

— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier

... being vehemently moved to evil, while but feebly attached to good. Hence never or scarcely ever does it happen that the perfect sin all at once against the Holy Ghost: wherefore Origen says (Peri Archon. i, 3): "I do not think that anyone who stands on the highest step of perfection, can fail or fall suddenly; this can only happen by degrees and bit ...

— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

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