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Step down   /stɛp daʊn/   Listen
Step down

verb
1.
Give up or retire from a position.  Synonyms: leave office, quit, resign.  "The chairman resigned over the financial scandal"
2.
Reduce the level or intensity or size or scope of.  Synonyms: de-escalate, weaken.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Step down" Quotes from Famous Books



... sad step down from such a boy to the lad who has been given warning after corruption has begun. Most boys feel such shame in confessing to failure that one has to accept with reserve the statements made by even the most truthful ...
— Youth and Sex • Mary Scharlieb and F. Arthur Sibly

... step down to the rescue. Peter Grimm had drawn a patent mink trap, and was its first victim. He sneaked from the express office nursing his crushed fingers and kicking his unlucky purchase ...
— Bart Stirling's Road to Success - Or; The Young Express Agent • Allen Chapman

... and after being for a few minutes in his own study, he sent for his wife. Abigail, coming up to her, brought her Sir Henry's love, and would she be good enough to step downstairs for five minutes? This was very civil; so she did step down, and found Sir Henry alone ...
— The Bertrams • Anthony Trollope

... the change that came over his face, the weary look that meant that the strain of a week had suddenly broken, but she did not need to see it, for she knew it was there. She heard him step down from the platform, and then she watched him as he walked down the aisle to meet Max, who was bringing up the flags. She wondered impatiently why Bannon did not call to him. Then he raised his head, but before a word had left his ...
— Calumet 'K' • Samuel Merwin

... was much swollen from the strain of a sinew, caused by an unexpected step down a bank taken by my horse when near Hhalhhool, on the road from Jerusalem; consequently, feeling feverish, and with a headache all night, I was not soothed by the camels groaning, quarrelling, or champing their food close to ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn

... sir, there's millions more," he said, coolly. "Now, doctor, there's no need for you to step down," he continued; "it's wonderful slimy, and there's shells and things sharp enough to cut through your boots. You give me the guns and basket, and I'll take 'em up on the sands and come back for you. I'm more used to the ...
— King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale • George Manville Fenn

... was speaking to Joe," said father. "Joe," said he again, "I was at Skeal-Hill,"—mother gave another grunt then,—"and they told me that thy old friend the jolly-jist is back again. I think thou had better step down, and see if he wants to buy any more broken stones; old Abraham has a fine heap or two lying aside Kirgat." Joe thought he had done many a dafter thing than take father at his word, whether he meant it or not; and so thought, so done, for next morning ...
— The Squire of Sandal-Side - A Pastoral Romance • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... her precious quarters to get rid of the attentive porter, and started off with a brisk step down the long platform to the station. It was part of her plan to get out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible, so she followed the stream of people who instead of going into the waiting-room veered off to the ...
— The Mystery of Mary • Grace Livingston Hill

... gaunt trees of the dark wood.... Which of us could say he would never turn a key in the lock of an empty house? How many casual little twists of the wrist of Fate stand between the best of us and the step down from the threshold of a broken home? What rags of memories have any of us to bundle behind the door of the empty house when the hour comes for us to click the key in the lock?... The wind cried down the narrow strip of ground where the smell of ...
— Waysiders • Seumas O'Kelly

... my advice, Miss Julia, don't step down. Nobody will believe you did it on purpose. The people will always say that ...
— Plays by August Strindberg, Second series • August Strindberg

... the stairs she dropped her fan, one step down it dropped, and she said with quivering lips and pointed downward: "I dropped my fan—there it lies on the lower step—please hand it ...
— Shallow Soil • Knut Hamsun

... tell you this now and for always," she continued. "I have nothing to give you. What you ask for is just as impossible as though you were to walk in your picture gallery and kneel before your great masterpiece and beg Beatrice herself to step down from the canvas. I began to wonder yesterday," she went on, rising abruptly and moving across the room, "whether I really was that sort of woman. With your money in my pocket and the gambling fever in my pulses, I began even to believe it. And now I know that I am ...
— Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... the fresh spring air. Hear the roaring of Fish Creek as it comes up over the wooded hills. By no means! Don't suppose for the sixtieth part of a minute that I intend to hurry you away without breakfast; but you must step down into the kitchen, where the girl has prepared us a strong cup of coffee; as good, no doubt, as Mother Bee used to provide for our matin meal on College Hill. Here, Dancer, you must have ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... there a moment, listening to his quick, light step down the corridor, to the opening of the lift door, to its metallic closing. She sat there, in the sunshiny dining-room, in her fresh, white morning gown. She picked up her newspaper, opened it; scanned it, put it down. For years, now, she ...
— Emma McChesney & Co. • Edna Ferber

... Hang them over your arm. Run down to the street car. Give your fare to the conductor. Step down from the car very carefully. Look up and down for passing automobiles. Run down to the beach. Ready for lunch baskets. Eat your lunch. Drink the cool spring water. Now for the whirligig. Choose a galloping horse. ...
— Games and Play for School Morale - A Course of Graded Games for School and Community Recreation • Various

... saying that, I shall not allow you to listen. I shall step down and talk with him a moment and you can drive on for a ...
— In a Steamer Chair And Other Stories • Robert Barr

... having dreamed out a feasible plan, proceeded to put it into execution. He had in the warehouse some Government powder, and causing a keg of this to be conveyed into his private office, he knocked out the head. He next penned a note to Halsey, asking him to step down to the office "upon important business;" adding in a postscript, "As I am liable to be called out for a few moments at any time, in case you do not find me in, please sit down and amuse yourself with the newspaper until I return." He knew Halsey was at his counting-house, and would certainly come ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)

... prominent members of the denomination I had lately left. As they sat in their cushioned seats, carelessly talking to one another, they all seemed happy and contented. My own condition then arose before me, and I felt lonely indeed and thought, 'I will step down from my little seat and enter the coach with the rest.' I was just about to do this—even had my hand upon the door knob—when I realized that I had left my dress in the little seat, and ...
— The value of a praying mother • Isabel C. Byrum

... was going to take counsel of the Gan-Finn, and that he had better take refuge in his boat before the way was closed to him. And, in fact, the boat had come so close up to the boulders, that he had only to step down upon the thwarts. The rudder glided into his hand, and aslant behind the mast sat some one at the prow, and hoisted and stretched the sail: but his face Jack could ...
— Weird Tales from Northern Seas • Jonas Lie

... for him to publish the work he has composed. I need not say, that I have his success much at heart; not only because he is my friend, but something much better—a man of great talent, of which he is less sensible than I believe any even of his enemies. If you can so far oblige me as to step down, do so; and if you are otherwise occupied, say nothing about it. I shall find you at home in ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... own position. Lady Selina was herself unmarried, and not likely to marry; and why had she maintained her virgin state, and foregone the blessings of love and matrimony? Because, as she often said to herself, and occasionally said to Fanny, she would not step down from the lofty pedestal on which it had pleased fortune and birth ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... had been plunged into a lake. I passed the crest of the mountain and began to descend. I felt with my foot before me, and when the foot could find nothing to rest on I drew it back and moved sidewise till I found a step down, hanging on all the time to the branches of the trees. I descended in this way a long distance, then came to a marsh which I recognized only by the croaking of the frogs in it; and, skirting the sound, made my way past it, always keeping the ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I • Stillman, William James

... be a man. To the pretty girls, with their Parisian frocks and their relatively idle lives, Rosie, with her power of tackling actualities, was as a human being to a race of marionettes. It would be necessary for him, in deference to his hosts, to step down among them in a minute or two and twirl in their company; but he would do it with a certain pity for those to whom this sort of thing was really a pastime; he would do it as one for whom pastimes had lost their meaning and who would be in ...
— The Side Of The Angels - A Novel • Basil King

... without injury to others to whom he was bound, he would surrender. Of what exact nature or kind should be the woman whom it might please him to select as his wife, he had formed no accurate idea; but he would endeavour so to marry that he would make no step down in the world that might be offensive to his family, but would yet satisfy his own convictions by drawing himself somewhat away from aristocratic blood. His father had done the same when choosing his first wife, and the happiness of his ...
— Marion Fay • Anthony Trollope

... furthered his views. "It isn't so sordid in the saloon, where you stood the other evening, you know," he replied. "Will you step down there?" ...
— The Tinted Venus - A Farcical Romance • F. Anstey

... say my final word at our meeting next week. I would rather step down from the chair than dribble out of it. Even the devil is in the habit of departing with a "melodious twang," and I ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... and let them drink in a rivulet that ran there, and then to do the same for the other half, which was done without being hindered by the enemies. Then, the captain said to all: "Gentlemen, let us withdraw from here step by step down this declivity in such a way that the enemy may think that we are fleeing from them, in order that they may come in search of us below, for, if we can attract them to this plain, we will attack them all of a sudden in such a manner that I hope not one of them will escape from our hands. Our horses ...
— An Account of the Conquest of Peru • Pedro Sancho

... got four hurdle pens down in one of my fields, and a small flock of wethers, so if you will just step down with me I will show you how it is done." The illustration depicts my friend as he is about to demonstrate the matter to me. His lucid explanation was evidently that which was in the mind of the writer ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... play the game? You've got the stuff. If you only could put it across, if you had the punch, you could go any distance. I—I'm not quite big enough to step down for a better man, but I'd rather have you beat me than any other man alive. Why ...
— The House of Toys • Henry Russell Miller

... able to make up for it now," was the rejoinder, "for here comes the steward, teapot and all. Step down below into the cabin, and make yourself ...
— The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn • Harry Collingwood

... not say, that I have his success much at heart; not only because he is my friend, but something much better—a man of great talent, of which he is less sensible than, I believe, any even of his enemies. If you can so far oblige me as to step down, do so," etc. ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... many lamentations at having to step down into the water; but she took good care of the child, carrying him quite high and dry. Oliver followed, to see that he was tied securely to the balustrade on the roof. While he was doing this, Ailwin brought Mildred in the same way. Mildred wanted to be of use below; but her brother told her the ...
— The Settlers at Home • Harriet Martineau

... said the sergeant. "But if your father comes in, just ask him to step down to the police-station, d'you see?—I should like to have a word or two ...
— The Borough Treasurer • Joseph Smith Fletcher

... delicacy. Excess of conscientiousness degenerates into infirmity. Scruple is one-handed when a sceptre is to be seized, and a eunuch when fortune is to be wedded. Distrust scruples; they drag you too far. Unreasonable fidelity is like a ladder leading into a cavern—one step down, another, then another, and there you are in the dark. The clever reascend; fools remain in it. Conscience must not be allowed to practise such austerity. If it be, it will fall until, from transition to transition, it at length reaches the deep gloom of political prudery. ...
— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... anyhow, for a young and beautiful woman like you to remain a widow. And your future husband is a man of talent and distinction, and he's not bad-looking, either. Will you stick to your title, now, I wonder? Or will you step down, and be plain Mrs. Marchdale? No—the Honourable Mrs.—excuse me—'Mr. and the Honourable Mrs. Marchdale.' I see you in the 'Morning Post' already. And will you continue to live in Italy? Or will you ...
— The Cardinal's Snuff-Box • Henry Harland

... fancy to 'Keep on Moving.' Up to this we had been snug as fleas in a blanket; but now he started to make such a noise, encoring, that I had to step down to the gallery and lean over it and request Petunia to take the cover off the piano and play something, if she could, to deaden the outcries. 'Something domestic on the loud pedal,' I suggested. 'Create an impression that we're holding a ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... prime minister and acting deputy prime minister after Prime Minister Sir Julius CHAN (in office since 30 August 1994) and Deputy Prime Minister Chris HAIVETA (in office since 7 September 1994) were required to step down during an inquiry into the government's hiring of mercenaries to assist the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces against Bougainville rebels; the inquiry is scheduled to conclude on 30 May 1997 cabinet: National Executive ...
— The 1997 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... employing an alternating current, such as the Kjellin and Rochling furnaces, where the metal to be heated really forms the secondary circuit of a large and novel form of transformer which in principle is analogous to the familiar transformer seen to step down the potential of alternating current as for house lighting. For such a transformer the primary coil is formed of heavy wire and the secondary circuit is the molten metal which is contained in an annular channel. The current obtained in the metal is of considerable intensity, ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro

... step down and light the fire herself, and told Amenda to follow her and watch how she did it. I felt interested in the experiment, and followed also. Ethelbertha tucked up her frock and set to work. Amenda and I ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome

... care. But I realize that it isn't fair to be major all the time. I'm willing to step down and give ...
— The Mystery at Putnam Hall - The School Chums' Strange Discovery • Arthur M. Winfield

... I had observed fleecy clouds gathering daily in the afternoon). "Just my opinion!" said Katchiba, delighted; "in four or perhaps in five days I intend to give them one shower; just one shower; yes, I'll just step down to them now, and tell the rascals, that if they will bring me some goats by this evening, and some corn tomorrow morning, I will give them in four or five days just one shower." To give effect to his declaration he gave several toots upon his magic whistle. "Do ...
— The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile • Sir Samuel White Baker

... he. "Well, that's unfort'nate—appears as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsomever, sperrits don't reckon for much, by what I've seen. I'll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now, you've spoke up free, and I'll take it kind if you'd step down into that there cabin and get me a—well, a—shiver my timbers! I can't hit the name on't; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim—this here brandy's ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester

... I'll be darned!" He held out his hand to Jock. "If you're a real son of your mother I wish you'd just call the office boy as you step down the hall with Von Herman and tell him to bring me a hammer and a couple of spikes. I'd better nail down ...
— Personality Plus - Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock • Edna Ferber

... thump came the sound of a heavy object rolling slowly step by step down a long stairway and then after an interval of ten ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill • Margaret Vandercook

... Judge Priest to the other's salutation. "No, thank you, son, I won't come in; but I've got a little job fur you. I wisht, ef you ain't too busy, that you'd step down the street and see ef you can't find Peep O'Day fur me and fetch him back here with you. It won't take you ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb

... hind legs the brown bear hesitated in his movements. He was separated from Matt by five feet of space between the show window and the raised platform upon which the boy stood. He did not seem to wish to leap the span, nor did he appear inclined to step down to the floor and then up ...
— Young Auctioneers - The Polishing of a Rolling Stone • Edward Stratemeyer

... scarcely believe the evidence of his senses. He told himself fiercely that he would never believe, without the convincement of fact, that the ideal could step down ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde

... practically prepared to deny that he is a man. Men, and only men, can be the judges of whether he is a man. But any private club of prigs can be judges of whether he ought to be a citizen. When once we step down from that tall and splintered peak of pure insanity we step on to a tableland where one man is not so widely different from another. Outside the exception, what we find is the average. And the practical, legal ...
— Eugenics and Other Evils • G. K. Chesterton

... dignity of a grown-up person, brought me of a sudden to a sort of puberty of sorrow, to emancipation from tears. I ought then to have been happy; I was not. It struck me that my mother had just made a first concession which must have been painful to her, that it was a first step down from the ideal she had formed for me, and that for the first time she, with all her courage, had to confess herself beaten. It struck me that if I had just scored a victory it was over her; that I had succeeded, as sickness or sorrow or age might have succeeded, ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust

... feeding a horse or an ox. Aided by the manure that is thus yielded to him by the better lands, we see him next retracing his steps, improving the hillside, and compelling it to yield a return double that which he at first obtained. With each step down the hill, he obtains still larger reward for his labour, and at each he returns, with increased power, to the cultivation of the original poor soil. He has now horses and oxen, and while by their aid he extracts ...
— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey

... of sunshine and shadow, nor to the spiritual, moral or intellectual condition of the people; but is a salutation, embodying in its brevity an invitation to the stranger to dismount from his horse, or step down from his carriage, and rest himself beneath the shade of the trees. "Light, stranger, light and shade," is the laconic, epigrammatic ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 54, No. 3, July, 1900 • Various

... thinking," said the other Anthony, slowly, "that I see a way out of this. I HOPE I see one! I'd like—I'd like to discuss it with Miss Sally. If you'll just step down to the—the chicken yard, Bud, for five minutes, say. We'll call you. And it's just possible that ...
— Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories • Kathleen Norris

... bulk of his body quivered with eagerness. "If it be your wish, O Queen, I, Cherkis, will step down from the throne for you and sit beneath your right hand, eager to do ...
— The Metal Monster • A. Merritt

... the world was so new that even the stars were dark, it was very, very flat. Chareya, Old Man Above, could not see through the dark to the new, flat earth. Neither could he step down to it because it was so far below him. With a large stone he bored a hole in the sky. Then through the hole he pushed down masses of ice and snow, until a great pyramid rose from the plain. Old Man Above climbed down through the hole he had made in the ...
— Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest • Katharine Berry Judson

... ended, and Mr. Loram sat down with an audible sigh of relief. Miss Dobbs was about to step down from the witness-box when ...
— The Vanishing Man • R. Austin Freeman

... appearance, and brought his books. "As I wish to speak to you in privick, peraps you will ave the kindness to request Frosch to step down stairs," he ...
— The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2 - His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy • William Makepeace Thackeray

... suppose it's worth while to contest the matter," he admitted. "We have no show with your administration, I see. We lose the contract and will step down and out quite peaceably; although there ought to be some arrangement by which we might get credit for the amount of ...
— The Making of Bobby Burnit - Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man • George Randolph Chester

... and he remained for a space in deep thought. "Sergeant," he began presently, "I'll have to be pulling out soon. Before we start in with this man . . . will you kindly step down to Doctor Cox's with these papers and ask him ...
— The Luck of the Mounted - A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police • Ralph S. Kendall

... her a day or two longer; she is so weak and helpless," said Mrs. Joe Thompson, in answer to her husband's remark, at breakfast-time on the next morning, that he must step down and see the Guardians of the ...
— After a Shadow, and Other Stories • T. S. Arthur

... race-ground should pass over where some rushes were growing. Now Riprapton had a most uncommon speed in this manner of progressing. He would, with his leg of flesh, take three tremendous hops, and then step down with his leg of wood one, and then three live hops again, and one dead step, the step being a kind of respite from ...
— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard

... that ammunition quick. Mr Leigh, be good enough to attend to that matther of the shmall arms, and then come back here and take charge of the Maxims. It's about time we let those ginks know that we're awake, so I'll step down to the main-deck and see about throwin' a ...
— The First Mate - The Story of a Strange Cruise • Harry Collingwood

... at all, Arnold had been compelled to step down from the grass on to a narrow, tiled path about half a yard wide, which led to the back door. Standing on this and peering through the chink in the boards, he gained at last a view of the interior of the house. ...
— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... foot. Splash! In went the other, but the stones in the sack were so heavy that at the very next step down tumbled Mr. Fox into ...
— The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen - an old tale retold • Felicite Lefevre

... morning, but the sky, without ceasing to be covered, had, as it were, melted into milky fog, which now hung like a cloud of luminous dust in the golden sunlight. Soon Mme Hugon proposed that they should step down through a little doorway below the terrace and take a walk on foot in the direction of Gumieres and as far as the Choue. She was fond of walking and, considering her threescore years, was very active. Besides, all her guests declared that there was no need to drive. So in a somewhat straggling order ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... yard to the big corral where the cattle were confined. Lawler brought the bay to a halt at a corner of the corral fence, where his foreman, Blackburn, who had been breakfasting in the messhouse, advanced to meet him, having seen Lawler step down from ...
— The Trail Horde • Charles Alden Seltzer

... may as well go on a little bit," thought Saxe; and cautiously advancing, so as not to step down some horrible rock split, he went forward rapt in wonder at the beauty of the scene, as at the end of a few yards the passage curved round so that the opening became invisible, and he was gazing at the glorious rays of light ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

... said the final words, pronouncing the twain as one, and gave his blessing in a somewhat stronger voice that carried in it a note of triumph, and was about to step down from the pedestal of the dial when there flew out from the darkness a young man with drawn sword, who dashed immediately upon the young husband. Barely had the cavalier time to draw aside his wife, and drawing his sword ...
— Mistress Penwick • Dutton Payne

... he would step down for a moment into the pews and ask the pulpit why the services were conventional, monotonous and uninspiring; why the clergy gave unsuitable moral advice, warning the congregation of dangers to ...
— My Impresssions of America • Margot Asquith

... along. It's raly a work of necessity and mercy proper for the Lord's day. Rather lonesome, now the Captain's gone, ain't ye? Took little Moses, too, I see. Wasn't at meetin' to-day, so I says, Mis' Kittridge, we'll just step down and ...
— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... His life, indeed, was full of miseries, the more keenly felt because of the high pitch and capacity of his nature, and perhaps the sharpest of them all was the sickening knowledge that had it not been for that one fatal error of his boyhood, that one false step down the steep of Avernus, he might have been a good and ...
— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard

... the Grande Hermine, where Donnacona spoke with Cartier's guides. As these savages told him of the wonders they had seen in France, he was apparently moved to very transports of joy. Nothing would satisfy him but that Cartier should step down into the canoe, that the chief might put his arms about his neck in sign of welcome. Cartier, unable to rival Donnacona's oratory, made up for it by causing the sailors hand down food and wine, to the keen delight of the Indians. This being done, the ...
— The Mariner of St. Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier • Stephen Leacock

... Poor children, how they loathe me—me whose hands are certainly steeped in infamy, but whose heart is as the heart of a little child! But what is a poor baronet to do, when a whole picture gallery of ancestors step down from their frames and threaten him with an excruciating death if he hesitate to commit his daily crime? But ha! ha! I am even with them! (Mysteriously.) I get my crime over the first thing in the morning, and then, ha! ha! for the rest of the day I do good—I do good—I ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

... to me, "Be so good as to step down, good cousin, and inquire how the Baroness is. You need only ask for Lady Adelheid; she will supply you with a full budget, I have no doubt" You may imagine how eagerly I hastened downstairs. But just as I was about to give a gentle knock at the door of the Baroness's anteroom, the Baron came ...
— Weird Tales. Vol. I • E. T. A. Hoffmann

... 'Tis but a step down yonder lane, And the little church stands near— The church where we were wed, Mary; I see the spire from here. But the graveyard lies between, Mary, And my step might break your rest— For I've laid you, darling, down to sleep, With your baby ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various

... minute," he said. And then stood in a musing attitude for a moment or two. "As you seem so anxious about this matter," he added, "if you will wait here a little while, I will step down to see Mr. ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... blind, and putting his finger on the wall flooded the room with a blaze of light from the central chandelier. In this unfamiliar illumination husband and wife faced each other awkwardly for a moment; then Mr. Royall said: "We'll step down and have some supper, if ...
— Summer • Edith Wharton

... without appetite and smoked without relish, striving to forget that odious woman's hints and aspersions, aimed evidently at the Rays, and had gone to his own room to write when a corporal appeared with the request from the captain in charge of the police guard of Ermita to step down to the office. ...
— Ray's Daughter - A Story of Manila • Charles King

... of the bag-stealers bein' now settled,' went on Bill, 'I shall kindly ask Sir Benjimen to step down, and call on Sir Samuel ...
— The Magic Pudding • Norman Lindsay

... The Reverend Saul stood up too. The Reverend Saul began to step down very carefully. The brigands gathered around, most of them being on the side on which the two were about to descend. The Reverend Saul had just stepped to the ground. The Baron was just preparing to follow. The brigands were impatient to secure them, when suddenly, with a quick ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille

... describe the vessel that is to be our home for so long," Mrs. Stevenson, senior, wrote to her sister at Colinton. "From the deck you step down into the cockpit, which is our open air drawing room. It has seats all around, nicely cushioned, and we sit or lie there most of the day. The compass is there, and the wheel, so the man at the wheel always keeps us company.... ...
— The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls • Jacqueline M. Overton

... saying that good officers never place their men in positions they would not themselves be willing to fill. And we are not entitled to believe that our Legislators, having set Dramatic Authors where they have been set, will—now that their duty is made plain—for a moment hesitate to step down and stand alongside. ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... him step down from his sublime stage to that of men, since he wishes to enter into all the transports which their natures can supply, and join in their jests, if, in the changes which take his fancy, he would confine himself to nature. But ...
— Amphitryon • Moliere

... abnormal. Mothers in Lady Coryston's position, when their husbands expire, generally retire to a dower-house, on a jointure; leaving their former splendors—the family mansion and the family income—behind them. They step down from their pedestal, and efface themselves; their son becomes the head of the family, and the daughter-in-law reigns in place of the wife. Nobody for many years past could ever have expected Lady Coryston to step down from anything. Although she had brought but a very modest dowry, ...
— The Coryston Family • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... said the lord of the mansion; "but, Craigie, do you, pray, step down to the cellar, and fetch us up a bottle of the Burgundy, 1678; it is in the fourth bin from the right-hand turn. And I say, Craigie, you may fetch up half a dozen whilst you are about it. Egad, we'll make ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... Luscombe for firmness. Also, she was never offended and was hospitality itself, and she had a way of greeting one that was a reward for all one's trouble—it seemed much more trouble than it really was, somehow, just to step down into the tank. And she was so charming no one could help being flattered till the next visitor arrived, when she was even ...
— The Limit • Ada Leverson

... I've a card, and shall go: but at present, as soon As friend Scamp shall be pleased to step down from the moon, (Where he seems to be soaring in search of his wits), And an interval grants from his lecturing fits, I'm engaged to the Lady Bluebottle's collation, To partake of a luncheon and learn'd conversation: ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... probably, I knew, have scrambled over the whole of the building with perfect ease had there been light. I might already be close to the ground, but at the same time I might be many feet above it, and I therefore could not venture to step down without going through the same process as before. Leaning on my elbows, I stretched my arms along the top of the chest. I slipped off, and unexpectedly found my feet touch the ground. I was too eager to escape to allow ...
— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... not ventured to the lowest limb of the tree. Now, as Whopper started to step down, one of the wolves, large and savage, leaped up at him with a ...
— Four Boy Hunters • Captain Ralph Bonehill

... village shop in particular had greatly improved since the year 1870. It was now possible to procure there pretty much anything you liked in reason: which was a conveniency, because suppose anythink was required of a suddent (and he had known such things before now), he (Calton) could step down there (supposing the shop to be still open), and order it in, without he borrered it of the Rectory, whereas in earlier days it would have been useless to pursue such a course in respect of anything but candles, or soap, or treacle, ...
— Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - Part 2: More Ghost Stories • Montague Rhodes James

... night hours following Mary Everton's visit I was far enough, I hope, from envying Barrett; far enough, too, from the thought that I might ever venture to ask any good and innocent young woman to step down with me into the abyss of unearned infamy into which I had been flung, largely through the efforts of another woman who was neither good nor innocent. None the less, the delight which was half intoxication remained and the night ...
— Branded • Francis Lynde

... kept his eyes open that evening as well as his wife. He took a step down into the room. He was anxious to take no part in the dispute; he desired to be just; he was favourably inclined towards Stella Ballantyne; looking at her he had been even a little moved. But Dick was the first consideration. ...
— Witness For The Defense • A.E.W. Mason

... mother make out in the half-darkness a perfectly wonderful copper mug on the mantelpiece; and you go out and come in the ramshackle door (stooping every time) after you've felt all about for the rusty old iron latch, and then you step down two steps (or fall), presently to step up two more. Well, for dinner we had six kinds of meat and two meat pies and potatoes and currants! My dinner was a potato. I'm old and infirm and I have many ailments, but I'm not so bad off as to be able to live on a potato a day. And since we were having ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick

... straight to the bosom of the Father, is very prickly and full of sharp thorns. You have held a high character for honor and respectability. You have a child who loves you, who has thought you perfect. You must step down from your high pedestal. You must renounce the place you have held in your child's heart. In short, you must let your only child, and also the cold, censorious world, see you as God has ...
— How It All Came Round • L. T. Meade

... led him back and forth across the starry lanes, describing in the most artless fashion her own method of remembering the names and positions of the constellations. As their range of vision on the veranda was circumscribed, Ware suggested that they step down upon the lawn to get a wider sweep, a move which attracted the attention of ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson

... too specialised, too insignificant, for an historical record, and yet which may help the reader to form a true impression of the scene and situation, are thus brought within the compass of these pages. The account becomes more graphic if less imposing, more vivid if less judicial. As long as each step down from the "dignity of history" is accompanied by a corresponding increase in interest, we may pursue without compunction that pleasant, if ...
— The Story of the Malakand Field Force • Sir Winston S. Churchill

... be a hired man," retorted Mayo. "But I am also a licensed shipmaster. I must ask you to step down off the bridge." ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

... of this step, but opportunities were not many, and the idle, pleasant years drifted by with no change. But Ellie Hawkes, Grace's big sister, who had kept books in the box factory for three years, was to be married now; a step down for Ellie—for her "friend" was only Terry Castle, a brawny, ignorant giant employed by the Express Company—but a step up for Grace. She would be a wage-earner; her pretty, weak face grew animated at the thought, and her ...
— Martie the Unconquered • Kathleen Norris

... since it threatened to reduce duties twice, five times, ten times as high as ours!" England alone clung to Free Trade, and why? Because she had grown so strong under the old system of Protection that she could now as a Hercules step down into the arena and challenge everyone to come into the lists. In the arena of commerce England was the strongest. This was why she advocated Free Trade, for Free Trade was really the right of the most powerful. English interests were furthered under the veil of the magic ...
— Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire • James Wycliffe Headlam

... "but his case is critical. Everything will depend on his mind being kept at ease. He has taken it into his head that his business is going to wreck while he lies there unable to attend to it, and asked me earnestly if the shop had been opened. I told him I'd step down and inquire." ...
— Post Haste • R.M. Ballantyne

... dark, The measles broke out in the Ark: Little Japher, and Shem, and all the young Hams, Were screaming at once for potatoes and clams. And "What shall I do," said poor Mrs. Noah, "All alone by myself in this terrible shower: I know what I'll do: I'll step down in the hold, And wake up a lioness grim and old, And tie her close to the children's door, And giver her a ginger-cake to roar At the top of her voice for an hour or more; And I'll tell the children to cease their din, Or I'll let that grim ...
— What Katy Did At School • Susan Coolidge

... forty-nine persons reacted sharply to the sound and sent startled glances her way. The traffic cop whirled and looked, the motorman on the car waiting beside her leaned far out and craned, and the conductor grasped both handrails and took a step down that ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower

... group came the voice of Anna: "Miranda, dear, I wouldn't stop them." The men regathered the lines. She moved half a step down and stayed herself on her sister's shoulder. Miranda wrinkled back at her in an ecstasy ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable

... it's almost a shame to own it—not that I could have done anything to prevent it—but she did step down one step of the stair and actually ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever

... targ—" I stopped even thinking, so surprised and shocked was I by the boldness of my imagery. The girl was just below me. I looked down on her wistfully. Could I trust her? Why had she released me at this moment? I must! I must! There was no other way. I dropped back below. "Ask Olson to step down here, please," I requested; "and don't let anyone ...
— The Land That Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... Doctor Johnson the usual glass of ale. Get some ice for the Emperor, and ask Lord Bacon to step down ...
— A House-Boat on the Styx • John Kendrick Bangs

... for bayonet and cartouch-box crossed over their old jackets, half dirt, half finery—all was ready for shoving off, when Captain M—- desired the officers whom he had appointed to the expedition to step down into his cabin. Bully, the first lieutenant, was unwell with an intermittent fever, and Captain M—-, at the request of Macallan, would not accede to his anxiety to take the command. Price, Courtenay, Stewart, and three other midshipmen, were those who ...
— The King's Own • Captain Frederick Marryat

... carry anything with pleasure. Now I'm afraid we must be going. Mother wants me to step down to Clovelly with a message for the landlady of the New Inn, and I've set my heart upon walking once more to Gallantry Bower. Can't you come with us, Isabel? It would be so nice if you could, ...
— In the High Valley - Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series • Susan Coolidge

... various leaders, opposed on most subjects, are united to help it, in the hope of catching the popular breeze. During the consulship of Pompey and Catulus, Pompey was the principal Roman citizen, and he tried to make sure that his prestige should not be lessened when he should step down ...
— The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic • Arthur Gilman

... sighing when her man-servant let down the handsome carriage-step down which she flew into the hall of her house. She rushed precipitately upstairs, and when she reached her room was startled by seeing her husband sitting by ...
— Domestic Peace • Honore de Balzac

... has even been found economical to take direct current from a large unit, change it by means of a rotary transformer into alternating current, step up from 80 to, say, 2,000 volts, go to the distant point, and step down again to 80 volts alternating, and then convert again by means of a rotary transformer into ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898 • Various

... "if thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer. Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him, for, believe me, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume V. • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... black pool of New York specked with star-like lights—a pool of darkness, where three million people slept, or tried to sleep; but it was like looking into a cup of ink to read destinies. Now, twelve hours afterwards, let us step down below into the centre of the city, when the limelight of a glaring, cloudless sun is turned full on it—when the living microcosm of its active life is thrown on the magic-lantern screen of our retina. Now ...
— Impressions of a War Correspondent • George Lynch

... father because he was her father, and get a glimpse of her or a word from her when he came on his errands to Tory Hill. There were analogies between his devotion and the adoration of a mortal for a goddess beyond the stars. Like Hippolytus, he would have been content that his Artemis should never step down from her shrine so long as he was permitted to lay his gifts on ...
— The Street Called Straight • Basil King

... a Roman nobleman must sacrifice his feelings to the public interest. As for Julia, she celebrated her third wedding joyfully; for Tiberius, after the deaths of Agrippa and of his own brother Drusus, was the rising man, the hope and the second personage of the empire, so that she was not forced to step down from the lofty position which the marriage with Agrippa had given her. Tiberius, furthermore, was a very handsome man and for this reason also he seems not to have been displeasing to Julia, who in the matter of husbands considered not only glory ...
— The Women of the Caesars • Guglielmo Ferrero

... ocean. Wind or no wind, Moses' rod or no rod, the true explanation of that broad path cleared through the sea is—'the waters saw Thee, O God.' The use of natural means may have been an aid to feeble faith, encouraging it to step down on to the untrodden and slippery road. The employment of Moses and his rod was to attest his commission to act as ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... same feeling now as I looked at the scene before us, and I suppose I seemed moody, for immediately Mrs. Falchion said: "Why, now my words have come true; the scene can be made perfect. Pray step down to the valley, Dr. Marmion, and complete the situation, for you are trying to seem serious, and it is irresistibly amusing—and professional, I suppose; one must not forget that you teach the ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... Jones strutted his brief hour on this stage in which the play had been both a bloodcurdling tragedy and a comedy; and now he was to step down and out. In the last act he had said, "I have done it!" And he had done it! He and his fellow conspirators, whether of high or low degree, had set in operation a train of causes that should issue in abolishing throughout the United States that institution of slavery ...
— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler

... the night clerk. Say, Mrs. Foote, I think you'd better step down to six-eighteen and ...
— Cheerful—By Request • Edna Ferber

... this huge vessel should be broken up, and when his ministers remonstrated on the ground that she would be invaluable in case of emergency, he replied that if an insurrection could not be suppressed without such extraordinary instruments, the Bakufu might step down at once from the seats of power. "As for me," he added, "I have no desire to preserve such an evidence of constant apprehension and at such a charge on the ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... for the purpose. While yet hardly at the residence a salute was suddenly fired; all the gates and doors were, without delay, thrown open with embarrassing and hospitable profusion, and the Mandarin himself passed out, and would have assisted Ling to step down from his chair had not that person, clearly perceiving that such a course would be too great an honour, evaded him by an unobtrusive display of versatile dexterity. So numerous and profound were the graceful remarks ...
— The Wallet of Kai Lung • Ernest Bramah

... Southampton, interviewing everybody, and he's been about here since eight this morning. He's in the library now—that's where the open French window is that you see at the end of the house there. Perhaps you would like to step down there ...
— The Woman in Black • Edmund Clerihew Bentley

... thought of those young ladies chosen by my sister. Social position or wealth does not weigh with me, Mrs. Guinness—not a feather!" earnestly. If he really had meant to give her a passing reminder that marriage with Kitty would be a step down the social grade for him, he was thoroughly scared out of his intention. As he talked, reiterating the same thing again and again, the heat rose into his neatly-shaved face ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... to make a triumphal entry into the last city left to the King of Belgium, Ypres, and to be on hand when his guards and marines from the Kiel Canal, who were present in large numbers, did the goose-step down the Rue Royale to Calais. The courage of ...
— The Red Watch - With the First Canadian Division in Flanders • J. A. Currie

... give me the key, monsieur: I order you to do so," said the king, advancing from the obscurity, and partially opening his cloak. "Mademoiselle de Montalais will step down to talk with you, while we go up-stairs to Mademoiselle de la Valliere, for, in fact, it is she only whom ...
— Ten Years Later • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Frank, being compelled to raise his voice in order to make himself understood above the roar of the water. "I'm going to step down there a ...
— Frank Merriwell's Pursuit - How to Win • Burt L. Standish

... afternoon helping Bob Carter sprinkle the floor and put on the sordust. the floor was all shiny with wax and aufully slipery. so Bob got us to put on some water to take off the shiny wax. well write in front of the platform there is a low platform where they get up to put in their votes and then step down and Beany said, dont put any water there only jest dry sordust. so i dident. well that night we went erly to see the fun. Gim Luverin got up and said there was one man which was the oldest voter in town and he ought to vote the first, the name of ...
— The Real Diary of a Real Boy • Henry A. Shute

... her own old bridal array, step down the front path, with more happiness than she had known since her husband's disappearance. Elmira had told her mother that Lawrence Prescott was coming to see her, and she had immediately leaped to furthest conclusions. Ann Edwards ...
— Jerome, A Poor Man - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... little opening quite free from brush and trees I step down to bathe my hands in the brook, when a small, light slate-colored bird flutters out of the bank, not three feet from my head, as I stoop down, and, as if severely lamed or injured, flutters through the grass and into the nearest bush. As I ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various

... Mars has got to step down now," said Amory. "We are one farther on. I don't know how it will be, but if I felt on Mars the way I do now, I should assent to breakfast. ...
— Romance Island • Zona Gale

... though you have breakfasted, a cup of hot tea will do you good this cold, crisp morning. My lady will be pleased to have you come down to the table. The bell will ring in about ten minutes. You can easily make your way there. Step down the corridor, and turn into the passage-way at the ...
— Kidnapped at the Altar - or, The Romance of that Saucy Jessie Bain • Laura Jean Libbey

... to yourself—Once I were well down, no man shall see me up here again. Well, my brethren, humiliation, humility, is to be learned just in the same way, and it is to be learned in no other way. He who would be down must just come down. That is all. A step down, and another step down, and another, and another, and already you are well down. A humble act done to-day, a humble word spoken to-morrow; humiliation after humiliation accepted every day that you would at one time have spurned from you ...
— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte

... and concluded to fall out, but just then one of my feet rested on something solid, so I put both feet on it and began to step down. ...
— Skiddoo! • Hugh McHugh

... Merrick was left for a time to her own devices, she occupied a half-hour or so in reading the newspapers, and then made up her mind to go for a stroll before luncheon. Attiring herself rather gaily (she was still remarkably good-looking, only a little over 40 years then) she set out with a sprightly step down the main staircase, humming to herself a lively air which she used to sing in happier days. Just as she was descending the last flight of stairs, a gentleman having a delicate-looking lady on his arm began to ascend, ...
— The Mysteries of Montreal - Being Recollections of a Female Physician • Charlotte Fuhrer

... at her compassionately before nodding to Manasseh for a light. "No, poor wretch, I'll be sworn you do not," he muttered between the puffs. "Thank you, Manasseh; and now will you step down to the Inn, order the horses back to stable, and bring George and Harry back with you? I may require them to break a head or two here, if there should be trouble. Tell Alexander"—this was the coachman—"to have an eye on Master Dicky, and see that he gets his dinner. The ...
— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... all; the mother-child was suffered to step down and take her place again by Tod. And in the silence rose the short and rubbery report of little Mr. Pogram blowing his nose. No evidence given that morning was so conclusive, actual, terrible as that unconscious: "Like he does now, sir." That was why even Justice ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... to put a devil-may-care jollity into every inch of his person. Free-handed and easy-going, he might be recognized at once as the favorite of grisettes, the man who jumps lightly to the top of a stage-coach, gives a hand to the timid lady who fears to step down, jokes with the postillion about his neckerchief and contrives to sell him a cap, smiles at the maid and catches her round the waist or by the heart; gurgles at dinner like a bottle of wine and pretends to draw the cork by sounding a filip on his distended cheek; plays a tune with his ...
— Parisians in the Country - The Illustrious Gaudissart, and The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac

... and which caused Laura to adopt towards Miss Amory a grave and tranquil tone of superiority, which was at first by no means to the Muse's liking. Nobody likes to be found out, or, having held a high place, to submit to step down. ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Put, you are the same old flint, ever ready to strike fire. We won't quarrel now. Come, let us step down to the Bunch of Grapes, have a glass of wine, and talk ...
— Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance • Charles Carleton Coffin

... "That's enough. No words; step down." Then turning to Mildred, he said kindly and courteously, "Miss Jocelyn, it gives me pleasure to inform you that your innocence has been clearly shown. I should also inform you that this man Bissel has made himself liable to suit for damages, and I hope that you will ...
— Without a Home • E. P. Roe

... in agony. Laocoon shut his mouth, which had been stretched open for about eighteen centuries, untwisted the last coil of the snake, and stepped down, a free man. After this it did not surprise me to see Spartacus also step down and approach him, and the two ancients square off for fisticuffs, as if they had done it often before, enjoying at night the release from the everlasting pillory of art. It was the hour of releases, and I found myself in a moment in the midst of a "classic revival," whimsical beyond ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... also now to this man, that this is but the beginning of hell; but as it were the first step down to the pit; when, indeed, all these are but the beginnings of love, and but that which makes way for life. The Lord kills before he makes alive; he wounds before his hands make whole. Yea, he does ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... until you come to a step down,' said he. 'We shall have more room there, and we can ...
— Uncle Bernac - A Memory of the Empire • Arthur Conan Doyle

... while the poor wife, snatching up her baby, burst into screams; and then she hurried down again to see if the waters were rising fast. There was a step down into the room at the door leading from the staircase; she saw that the water was already on a level with the step. While she was looking, something came with a tremendous crash against the window, and sent the leaded panes and the old wooden framework inward in shivers, the water pouring ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... waiver," sez I; "and if it wouldn't inconvanience your honour, would yez be kind enough to step down and show me the way to the house ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... might do—in five years, for example: political writing, political speaking, would get a higher value now public life was going to be wider and more national, and they might give him such distinction that he would not seem to be asking Dorothea to step down to him. Five years:—if he could only be sure that she cared for him more than for others; if he could only make her aware that he stood aloof until he could tell his love without lowering himself—then he could go away easily, and begin a career which at five-and-twenty seemed probable ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot

... founding English prose as we know it is, of course, not comparable with that of Hooker, for of Shakespeare's prose there remains for us but little. Whenever he rose to eloquence he clothed himself in verse as with an inevitable attribute, but on the rare occasions when he condescended to step down from the great line to "the other harmony of prose" he is as splendid as in all else. In Hamlet ...
— The Glory of English Prose - Letters to My Grandson • Stephen Coleridge

... "A little chile step down; It go in de riber deep. Kin little feet touch groun' Whar mountain billows sweep? Heah dem ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... side-door and looked out. Dixie saw him step down into the junk-filled yard, and move aimlessly about from one spot to another, his hands locked behind him. His head was bowed, and his fine, strong face darkened by a steady frown. Jim Cahews came looking for him to ask some question, but he waved him away. Dixie heard him cry out impatiently: ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben

... vessels lay there for months at a time to be refitted, and as our house stood close to the water's-edge you could see from its windows all that went on, and all the different crafts and barges which passed on the river. When you wished to go anywhere by water you had only to step down a narrow flight of stone stairs outside, get into a boat, and be rowed where you pleased, and this was a very pleasant way of travelling and cost little. At that time few lived at Wapping but sea-faring people, and those who owned great wharfs, and had to do with merchandise and shipping. My father ...
— Susan - A Story for Children • Amy Walton

... toned it down by warbling snatches of a love song learned ere she knew the meaning of love, save as it was connected with Richard. It was not Edith Hastings who left that pleasant chamber, moving with an unfaltering step down the winding stairs and across the marble hall, but a half-crazed, defiant woman going on to meet her DESTINY and biting her lip with vexation when she heard that Richard had company—college friends, who being in Shannondale on business had come up ...
— Darkness and Daylight • Mary J. Holmes

... Number One is—finished, counted out, napoo! 'E's 'ad 'is d'y, and a pretty mess 'e's mide of it—and it's 'igh time, I say, for 'im to step down and let a better man ...
— Red Masquerade • Louis Joseph Vance

... his respects to my Lady Marechal Niel, and begs her to step down to the gate for about ...
— Other Things Being Equal • Emma Wolf

... Is it kape to the point? Oi till that white-feeced an' black-hearrted loiar, TIM MURPHY, that if he interrups me wance more whoile o'im in possession o' the chair, oi'll step down an' call 'm to orrder by landin' 'um a clump on ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, July 11, 1891 • Various

... I will step down, and see about breakfast. Take thy time; for this is to be a holiday, and we mean to make it a ...
— Work: A Story of Experience • Louisa May Alcott

... the new-fangled roads, he asked his neighbours, ay, and his labouring folk, to come and dine with him and drink to the success of his purchase. It was a proud day for him, and when dinner was done and they were all mellow with strong ale, he bade them step down to the borders of the lake, as he would have them be witness to a ceremony. When they reached the spot they saw a curious sight, for there on a strong dray, and dragged by Farmer Caresfoot's six best horses, was an oak of fifty years' growth coming ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... again. This interesting portion of the chapel remains intact, and the entrance to it lies upon the level of the floor according to ancient custom, being so ordered that the adult to undergo baptism might step down into the water, and ...
— Lying Prophets • Eden Phillpotts

... the favour, Lord Geoffrey, to step down to the landing and ascertain if my barge is there. The officer of the boat will find ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper

... your honour!" chorused the delighted group; and "I done that iligant, anyhow," muttered the gratified, successful, and, therefore, forgiving orator. "I'll try again. Ahem! wouldn't the young gentlemen just step down for a taste?" "By all manes!" was chimed at once; their hats were mounted in a moment, and off ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 18, 1841 • Various

... house where he was stopping saw the grand carriage drive up, she was prepared to behold an illustrious personage alight from it, and she was somewhat surprised when she saw a very plainly dressed, quiet lady step down from the high coach. She thought there surely must be some mistake; but when she saw the courteous affection with which the grand gentleman in the fine uniform and cocked hat greeted this plainly dressed lady, she knew that ...
— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton

... "Step down the steps," says the man with the crooked nose, "and I will enter by the door above and let ye in. I will ask the new girl we have in the kitchen," says he, "to make ye a pot of coffee to drink before ye go. 'Tis fine coffee Katie Mahorner makes for a green ...
— The Four Million • O. Henry

... places. Various senatorial associates of these two men in other deals found it difficult to believe their ears—but was not old Langdon at this moment narrating the amazing transaction on the floor of the Senate? Would the statue on the pedestal step down? Would the sphinx of the desert speak the story of the lost centuries? Would honor take the place of expediency in the affairs of state? What might not happen, thought the Senate machine, now that Peabody and Stevens had taken to their bosoms what they termed the ...
— A Gentleman from Mississippi • Thomas A. Wise

... single Orange villain among you that dare come down and meet me here like a man? Is John Grimes there? for if he is, before we begin to take you out of a face, to hunt you altogether out of the town, ye Orange villains I would be glad that he'd step down to Denis Kelly here for two or three minutes; ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... But there's better tricks than dyin' unwed. Bind up my finger, Miss Ruby, an' listen. You shall play Don't Care, an' change your frock, an' we'll step down to th' cove after dinner an' there be heartless and fancy-free. Lord! when the dance strikes up, to see you carryin' off the other maids' danglers an' treating ...
— I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... of you!" the cowboy challenged, making for the door. He was squarely in it, one foot lifted in his drunken balancing to step down, when Seth Craddock jerked out his pistol between the lifting and the falling of that unsteady foot, and shot the retreating man in the back. The cowboy pitched forward into the street, where he lay stretched and motionless, one spurred foot still ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden

... one to another, especially among those who had set on foot the impeachment enterprise and staked their future control of the government upon its success. Given for conviction and upon sufficient proofs, the President MUST step down and out of his place, the highest and most honorable and honoring in dignity and sacredness of trust in the constitution of human government, a disgraced man and a political pariah. If so cast upon insufficient proofs or from partisan ...
— History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, • Edumud G. Ross

... to our hero, galloping away on his old farm horse to find a country doctor, may seem a short step down from the sublime. And so, perhaps, it may be to those whose ideal of the sublime is only in outward and material things. But to those who look past these things to the passionate human heart, the same in every age, it will ...
— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe

... six of them, manned partly by the crew and partly by the Ambulance Corps. We were surrounded by torpedo-boats, British and French, and most of the crew of the Hermes had already been transferred to them. A few minutes later there was a cheer, and we saw the Captain step down into one of the boats, the last man to leave his ship. Our boats had picked up twenty or so of the men, and the problem now was to get them on board again. A moderate sea was running, but it required all the skill of our sailors to haul ...
— A Surgeon in Belgium • Henry Sessions Souttar



Words linked to "Step down" :   give up, pull up stakes, take office, escalate, step-down, top out, leave, leave office, depart, renounce, minify, lessen, retire, decrease, vacate, fall



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