Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a sharp inclination; precipitous.
  • adjective At a rapid or precipitous rate.
  • adjective Excessive; stiff.
  • adjective Ambitious; difficult.
  • noun A precipitous slope.
  • intransitive verb To soak in liquid in order to cleanse, soften, or extract a given property from.
  • intransitive verb To infuse or subject thoroughly to.
  • intransitive verb To make thoroughly wet; saturate.
  • intransitive verb To undergo a soaking in liquid.
  • noun The act or process of steeping.
  • noun The state of being steeped.
  • noun A liquid, bath, or solution in which something is steeped.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having an almost perpendicular slope; precipitous; sheer.
  • Elevated; high; lofty.
  • Excessive; difficult; forbidding: as, a steep undertaking; a steep price.
  • Bright; glittering; fiery.
  • noun A steep or precipitous place; an abrupt ascent or descent; a precipice.
  • noun The process of steeping; the state of being steeped, soaked, or permeated: used chiefly in the phrase in steep.
  • noun That in which anything is steeped; specifically, a fertilizing liquid in which seeds are soaked to quicken germination.
  • noun Rennet: so called from being steeped before it is used.
  • To tilt (a barrel).
  • To soak in a liquid; macerate: as, to steep barley; to steep herbs.
  • To bathe with a liquid; wet; moisten.
  • To imbue or impregnate as with a specified influence; cause to become permeated or pervaded (with): followed by in.
  • To be bathed in a liquid; soak.
  • noun Same as brasque.
  • noun plural The solutions or baths in which metals are dipped preparatory to electro-plating.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Bright; glittering; fiery.
  • intransitive verb colloq. To undergo the process of soaking in a liquid.
  • noun Something steeped, or used in steeping; a fertilizing liquid to hasten the germination of seeds.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A rennet bag.
  • transitive verb To soak in a liquid; to macerate; to extract the essence of by soaking. Often used figuratively.
  • noun A precipitous place, hill, mountain, rock, or ascent; any elevated object sloping with a large angle to the plane of the horizon; a precipice.
  • adjective Making a large angle with the plane of the horizon; ascending or descending rapidly with respect to a horizontal line or a level; precipitous.
  • adjective obsolete Difficult of access; not easily reached; lofty; elevated; high.
  • adjective Slang Excessive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward at an angle near vertical.
  • adjective informal expensive
  • verb To soak an item (or to be soaked) in liquid in order to gradually add or remove components to or from the item
  • verb To be imbued with an abstract quality
  • verb To make tea (or other beverage) by placing leaves in hot water.
  • noun A liquid used in a steeping process
  • noun B escarpment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of a slope; set at a high angle
  • verb devote (oneself) fully to
  • verb let sit in a liquid to extract a flavor or to cleanse
  • adjective having a sharp inclination
  • noun a steep place (as on a hill)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stepe, from Old English stēap.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stepen, perhaps of Old English origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English stēap ("high"), from Proto-Germanic *staupaz (compare Old Frisian stap, Middle High German *stouf), from Proto-Indo-European *steup- (“to push, stick”). The Proto-Indo-European root (and related) has many and varied descendants, including English stub; compare also Scots stap ("to strike, to forcibly insert").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English stepen, from Old Norse steypa ("to make stoop, cast down, pour out, cast (metal)"), from Proto-Germanic *staupijanan (“to tumble, make tumble, plunge”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, hit”). Cognate with Danish støbe ("cast (metal)"), Norwegian støpe, støype, Swedish stöpa ("to found, cast (metal)"), Old English stūpian ("to stoop, bend the back, slope"). More at stoop.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word steep.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • the verb. like tea.

    June 30, 2008