American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a sharp inclination; precipitous.
- adj. At a rapid or precipitous rate: a steep rise in salaries.
- adj. Excessive; stiff: a steep price.
- adj. Ambitious; difficult: a steep undertaking.
- n. A precipitous slope.
- v. To soak in liquid in order to cleanse, soften, or extract a given property from.
- v. To infuse or subject thoroughly to.
- v. To make thoroughly wet; saturate.
- v. To undergo a soaking in liquid.
- n. The act or process of steeping.
- n. The state of being steeped.
- n. A liquid, bath, or solution in which something is steeped.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having an almost perpendicular slope; precipitous; sheer.
- Elevated; high; lofty.
- Excessive; difficult; forbidding: as, a steep undertaking; a steep price.
- Bright; glittering; fiery.
- n. A steep or precipitous place; an abrupt ascent or descent; a precipice.
- 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.
- n. The process of steeping; the state of being steeped, soaked, or permeated: used chiefly in the phrase in steep.
- n. That in which anything is steeped; specifically, a fertilizing liquid in which seeds are soaked to quicken germination.
- n. Rennet: so called from being steeped before it is used.
- n. Same as brasque.
- n. plural The solutions or baths in which metals are dipped preparatory to electro-plating.
- adj. Of a near-vertical gradient; of a slope, surface, curve, etc. that proceeds upward at an angle near vertical.
- adj. informal expensive
- v. To soak an item (or to be soaked) in liquid in order to gradually add or remove components to or from the item
- v. To be imbued with an abstract quality
- v. To make tea (or other beverage) by placing leaves in hot water.
- n. A liquid used in a steeping process
- n. B escarpment
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Bright; glittering; fiery.
- v. To soak in a liquid; to macerate; to extract the essence of by soaking. Often used figuratively.
- v. colloq. To undergo the process of soaking in a liquid.
- n. Something steeped, or used in steeping; a fertilizing liquid to hasten the germination of seeds.
- n. Prov. Eng. A rennet bag.
- adj. Making a large angle with the plane of the horizon; ascending or descending rapidly with respect to a horizontal line or a level; precipitous.
- adj. obsolete Difficult of access; not easily reached; lofty; elevated; high.
- adj. Slang Excessive.
- n. A precipitous place, hill, mountain, rock, or ascent; any elevated object sloping with a large angle to the plane of the horizon; a precipice.
- adj. of a slope; set at a high angle
- v. devote (oneself) fully to
- v. let sit in a liquid to extract a flavor or to cleanse
- adj. having a sharp inclination
- n. a steep place (as on a hill)
- adj. greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation
- 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. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English stepe, from Old English stēap.Middle English stepen, perhaps of Old English origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“At this point in what he describes as a steep learning curve, Tjian does not foresee major changes at HHMI.”
“State industries still dominate the Chinese economy, even though they are in steep decline.”
“Both filed separately for bankruptcy last year, Jennifer's unemployment benefits expired, and monthly premiums for the family's private health insurance remain steep because of her preexisting condition.”
“The US w