step | |
1. n. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace. | |
2. n. A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder. | |
3. n. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase. | |
He improved step by step, or by steps. | |
The first step is to find a job. | |
4. n. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus. | |
The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents. | |
5. n. The space passed over by one movement of the foot in walking or running. | |
One step is generally about three feet, but may be more or less. | |
6. n. A small space or distance. | |
It is but a step. | |
7. n. A print of the foot; a footstep; a footprint; track. | |
8. n. A gait; manner of walking. | |
The approach of a man is often known by his step. | |
9. n. Proceeding; measure; action; act. | |
10. n. (plural) A walk; passage. | |
11. n. (plural) A portable framework of stairs, much used indoors in reaching to a high position. | |
12. n. (nautical) A framing in wood or iron which is intended to receive an upright shaft; specif., a block of wood, or a solid platform upon the keelson, supporting the heel of the mast. | |
13. n. (machines) One of a series of offsets, or parts, resembling the steps of stairs, as one of the series of parts of a cone pulley on which the belt runs. | |
14. n. (machines) A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves. | |
15. n. (music) The interval between two contiguous degrees of the scale. | |
Usage note: The word tone is often used as the name of this interval; but there is evident incongruity in using tone for indicating the interval between tones. As the word scale is derived from | |
16. n. (kinematics) A change of position effected by a motion of translation. | |
17. n. (programming) A constant difference between consecutive values in a series. | |
Printing from 0 to 9 with a step of 3 will display 0, 3, 6 and 9. | |
18. n. (slang) A stepsibling. | |
19. v. (intransitive) To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession. | |
20. v. (intransitive) To walk; to go on foot; especially, to walk a little distance. | |
to step to one of the neighbors | |
21. v. (intransitive) To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely. | |
22. v. (intransitive, figuratively) To move mentally; to go in imagination. | |
23. v. To set, as the foot. | |
24. v. (transitive, nautical) To fix the foot of (a mast) in its step; to erect. | |