steenbok 
large ears, and no false hoofs. It is of a general reddish- 
brown color, white below. The gray steenbok is A', me- 
lanotis. !f. oreotraijus is the klip-springer (which see, 
with cut). Also steenbock, sleinbock. Compare slriiibock 
and stonettuck. 
steening (ste'ning), . [Also steaning; verbal n. 
of steeifl-, v.] 1 . Any kind of path or road paved 
with small round stones. Halliirell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 2. In arch., the brick or stone wall or 
lining of a well or cesspool, the use of which 
is to prevent the irruption of the surrounding 
soil. Also stfiiihif/. 
steenkirk (sten'kerk), . [Also, less prop., xt< -in- 
/.///.; so called in allusion to the battle fought 
in 1692 oetaSteenkerke.F. Steinkerque (lit. 'stone 
5925 
Is this a time to steep 
Thy brains in wasteful slumbers? 
IJuarlen, Emblems, i. 7. 
Thou art so steep'd in misery, 
Surely 'twere better not to be. 
Tennyson, The Two Voices. 
The habitual criminal, steeped tnvice and used to igno- 
" 
steeply 
hedges, and other obstacles must be jumped 
us they come in the way. The name is sup] 
tu br originally due to any conspicuous object, such as a 
rlnuvli steeple, having been chosen as a goal, toward 
which those taking part in the nice were allowed to take 
any course they chose. The limits of the steeplechase- 
course are now marked out by flags. 
me IiauilUHl criminal, mer/n-u ill ni;u turn uocu lu iguv , , 
mlny, cares very little for disgrace, and accepts punish, steeplechaser (ste'pl-cha"siT), n. 1. One who 
rides in steeplechases. 2. A horse running 
or trained to run in a steeplechase. 
"If you do not like hunting, you are to affect to," says 
Mamma. " You mustlisten toCnptain lireakneck's stories 
at dinner, laugh in the right places, and ask intelligent 
questions about his steeplechasers." 
Nineteenth Century, XXVI. 780. 
ment as an Incident in his i-ircrr. 
Bibliotheca Sacra, XLVII. 594. 
II. intrans. To be bathed in a liquid ; soak. 
And now the midnight draught of sleep, 
Where wine and spices richly steep, 
In massive bowl of silver deep, 
The page presents on knee. 
M Ai^r^t, 8teep2 (stgp) , . c< Steep2> ,,*?. %? 4ASr BKSSS&5 r&SK 
of steeping; the state of being steeped, soaked, 
or permeated: used chiefly in the phrase in 
steep. 
Strait to each house she hasted, and sweet sleepe 
Pour'd on each wooer ; which so laid in steepe 
into fashion, after the battle of Steenkirk, for 
several articles, especially of dress, as wigs, 
buckles, large neckties, and powder; especial- 
ly, a cravat of fine lace, loosely and negligently 
knotted, with long hanging ends, one of which 
was often passed through a buttonhole. 
Mrs. Calico. I hope your Lordship is pleased with your 
Steenkirk. 
Lord F. In love with it, stiip my vitals ! Bring your Bill ; 
you shall be paid to-marrow. Varibntgh, The Relapse, i. 3. 
I had yielded up my cravat (a smart Steinkirk, by the 
way, and richly laced). Scott, Rob Roy, xxxi. 
Ladies also wore them [neckcloths], as in "The Careless 
Husband " Lady Easy takes her Steinkirk from her Neck 
and lays it gently over his Head. 
Ashton, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, I. 148. 
Steenstrupine (sten'strup-in), n. [Named after 
K. J. V. Steenstrup, a Danish naturalist.] A rare 
mineral occurring in massive forms and rhom- 
bohedral crystals of a brown color in the sodal- 
ite syenite of Greenland. It is a silicate of the 
rare metals of the cerium group, also thorium, 
and other elements. 
steep 1 (step), a. and n. [< ME. stepe, step, stay, 
steap, < AS. stedp, steep, high, = OFries. stdp, 
steep; cf. Icel. steyptlir, steep, lofty; Norw. 
stup, a steep cliff ; akin to stoop : see stoop 1 , and 
cf. steep*, steeple.] I. a. 1 . Having an almost 
perpendicular slope ; precipitous; sheer. _ t 
Two of these Hands are steepe and vpright as any wall, Steepen (ste pn), V. I. 
that it is not possible to climbe them. 
Pvrchas, Pilgrimage, p. 748. 
Thus far our ascent was easy ; but now it began to grow 
more steep, and difficult. 
Maundrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 119. 
2t. Elevated; high; lofty. 
steeplechase. 
Steeple-crownt (ste'pl-kroun), n. 
crowned hat. 
A steeple- 
And on their heads old steeple-cromu. 
Uudibrai Kedivimw (1700). 
(ffares.) 
;. 578. steeple-crowned (ste'pl-kround), a. Having a 
high peaked crown resembling a steeple : not- 
ing various articles of head-gear. 
The women wearing the old country steeple-crowned hat 
and simply made gowns. 
Ashton, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 138. 
Steepled (ste'pld), a. [< steeple + -ed%.] 1. 
Furnished or adorned with a steeple or steeples. 
As we neared the provincial city [Worcester], we saw the 
steepled mass of the cathedral, long and high, rise far into 
thecloud-freckled blue. H. James, Jr., Pass. Pilgrim, p. 44. 
Whilst the barley is in steep it is gauged by the excise 
officers, to prevent fraud. Encyc. Brit., IV. 27. 
2. That ill which anything is steeped ; specifi- 
cally, a fertilizing liquid in which seeds are 
soaked to quicken germination. 
When taken from the white bath, the skins, after wash- 
ing in water, are allowed to ferment in a bran steep for 
some time in order to extract a considerable portion of the 
alum and salt. C. T. Davis, Leather, p. 665. 
3. Rennet: so_called_from being steeped before 
2. Having the form of a steeple; peaked; tow- 
ering. 
Steepled hattes. 
Wright, Passions of the Mind (ed. 1621), p. 330. (HaUiicell.) 
A tteepled turbant on her head she wore. Fairfax. 
Having a sheer 8 t ee ple-engine (ste'pl-en'jin), . 1. A form 
of marine steam-engine used on side-wheel 
boats, in which the working-beam is the high- 
est part, and the connecting-rod is above the 
crank-shaft. 2. A direct-acting engine in 
it is used. [Prov. Eng.] Rot's steep, in bleach- 
ing cotton goods, the process of thoroughly saturating the 
cloth. The name is due to the former practice of allow- 
ing the flour or size with which the goods were impreg- 
nated to ferment and putrefy. Also called wetting-ovt 
steep. 
Steep-down (step'doun), a 
descent ; precipitous. 
Wash me in step-down gulfs of liquid fire ! 
Shak., Othello, v. 2. 280. 
You see Him till into the steep-down West 
He throws his course. J. Beaumont, Psyche, iii. 14. 
[< steep 1 + -en 1 .] To 
become steep. 
As the way steepened, ... I could detect in the hollow 
of the hill some traces of the old path. 
(Imp. Diet.) 
which the crank-shaft is located between the 
cylinder and the sliding-block or cross-head, 
the piston-rod is connected with the latter by 
two branches or limbs which straddle the 
crank-shaft and crank, and the connecting- 
gel) vat> or cis t e rn in which things are steeped ; 
donkey-engines, being very compact in form. 
-, . 
' (Imp Diet.) specifically, a vat in which the indigo-plant is Bte eple-fairt, . [Supposed to be a corruption, 
' steeped to macerate lt before it 1S soaked in the sim * lat i n g 6 ^pfc (asTf 'a church-fair 'or <ker- 
. ' 
Steep and of e 
3. Excessive; difficult; forbidding: as, a steep beating-vat, 
undertaking; a steep price. [Colloq.] steepfult (st'ep'ful), a. [< steep 1 
Perhaps if we should meet Shakspeare we should not be precipitous, 
conscious of any steep inferiority. 
-fid.] Steep; 
Emerson, Essays, 1st ser., p. 302. 
Neither priest nor squire was able to establish any steep 
difference In outward advantages between himself and the 
commons among whom he lived. Froude, Sketches, p. 164. 
4f. Bright; glittering; fiery. 
His eyen steepe and rollynge in his heede. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 201. 
His Ene [eyes] leuenaund with light as a low fyn, 
With stremys [gleams) full stithe in his stepe loke. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7724. 
II. n. A steep or precipitous place ; an abrupt 
ascent or descent ; a precipice. 
Suddenly a splendor like the morn 
JPervaded all the beetling gloomy steeps. 
Keats, Hyperion, H. 
Yet up the radiant steeps that I survey 
Death never climbed. Bryant, To the Apennines. 
steep 2 (step), v. [< ME. stepen, < Icel. stei/pa, 
cast down, overturn, pour out, cast (metals), 
refl. tumble down, = Sw. stopa = Dan. stobc, 
cast (metals), steep (corn) ; causal of Icel. stupa 
= Sw. stupa, fall, stoop: see stoop 1 , and cf. 
steep 1 .] I. trans. 1. To tilt (a barrel). Satti- 
well. [Prov. Eng.] 2. To soak in a liquid ; 
macerate : as, to steep barley ; to steep herbs. 
A day afore her [almonds'] setting, hem to stepe 
In meeth is goode. 
Pattadius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 54. 
The Gordons good, in English blood 
They steep'd their hose and shoon. 
Battle of Otterbourne (Child's Ballads, VII. 24). 
The prudent Sibyl had before prepared 
A sop in honey steeped to charm the guard. 
Dryden, KneiA, vi. 567. 
3. To bathe with a liquid ; wet; moisten. 
Then she with liquors strong his eies did steepe, 
That nothing should him hastily awake. 
Spenser, P. Q., II. vi. 18. 
His coursers, steep'd in sweat and stain'd with gore, 
The Greeks' preserver, great Machaon, bore. 
Anon he stalks about a steepfidl Rock, 
Where som, to shun Death's (never shunned) stroak, 
Had clambred vp. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Vocation. 
mess'), of 'staple-fair, < stapte' 2 , market, 
A common fair or mart. 
These youths, in art, purse, and attire most bare, 
Give their attendance at each steeple faire ; 
Being once hir'd he'l not displease his lord. 
Taylor, Works (1630). (Nares.) 
steep-grass (step'gi-as), n. 
Pinguicula vulgaris : so called because used like 
rennet. Also steepweed, steepioort. Britten and 
Holland, Eng. Plant Names, 
steepiness (ste'pi-nes), n. The state or quality 
of being steepy or steep ; steepness. [Rare.] 
The cragginess and steepiness of places up and down . . . 
makes them inaccessible. Howell, Vorreine Travel), p. 132. 
steeple (ste'pl), n. [< ME. steple, stepel, stepylle, 
stepul, < AS. stepel, stypel, a steeple, < stedp, 
steep, high: see steep 1 .] 1. A typically lofty 
structure attached to a church, town-house, or 
other public edifice, and generally intended to 
contain the bells of such edifice, steeple is a 
general term applied to every secondary structure of this 
description, whether in the form of a simple tower, or, 
as is usual, of a tower surmounted by a spire. 
The butterwort, ^Pie-hat (s 
A steeple-crowned 
An old doublet and a steeple hat. Browning, Stafford. 
steeple-houset (ste'pl-hous), n. A church edi- 
fice : so called by the early members of the 
Society of Friends, who maintained that the 
word church applies properly only to the body 
of believers. 
The reason why I would not go Into their steeple-house 
was because I was to bear my testimony against i', and to 
bring all off from such places to the Spirit of God, that 
they might know their bodies to be Ihe temples of the 
Holy Ghost. George Fox, Journal (1 hila.), p. 167. 
There are steeple hmises on every hand, 
And pulpits that bless and ban ; 
And the Lord will not grudge the single church 
That is set apart for man. 
Whittier, The Old South. 
Ydeleblisse is the grete wynd that thrauth doun the Steeple-hunting (ste'pl-hun'ting), . Same as 
greate tours and the heje steples and the greate beches steeplvcluisin g. Carlyle, Sterling, v. 
ine wodes thrauth to grounde. steeple-jack (ste'pl-jak), B. A man who climbs 
Ayenbite of Inwyt (E. E. T. S.), p. 23. gteep ] es an( j ta n chimneys to make repairs, or 
Lod. What does he ith middle looke like? - " 
Asto. Troth, like a spire steeple in a Country Village ouer- 
peering so many thatcht houses. 
. 
Dekker and Middleton, Honest Whore, ii. 1. 
At Paris all steeples are clangouring not for sermon. steepletop (ste'pl -top), n. 
Carlyle, French Rev., III. i. 4. 
2. A lofty head-dress worn by women in the 
fourteenth century. See liennin. 
Some of the more popular of these strange varieties of 
head-gear have been distinguished as the "horned, "the 
"mitre," the "steeple " in Prance known as the "hennin " 
and the " butterfly. " Encyc. Brit. , VI. 469. 
3. A pyramidal pile or stack of fish set to dry. 
Also called pack. See the quotation under 
to erect scaffolding. 
A steeple-jack of Sheffield . . . met with a shocking ac- 
cident St. James's Gazette, May 11, lbi>7. (Encyc. Diet.) 
The bowhead. or 
great polar whale (Balsena mysticetits): so called 
from the spout-holes terminating in a sort of 
cone: a whalers' name. C. M. Scammon. 
Steeplewise (ste'pl-wiz), adv. In the manner 
of a steeple ; like a steeple. 
Thin his haire. 
Besides, disordered and rnkemhd. his crowne 
Picked, made steeple-ioise ; ... bald he was beside. 
Heywood, Dialogues (Works, ed. Pearson, 1874, VI. 120). 
steeply (step'li), adv. In a steep manner; with 
r,4-nn.m->nin ii>i4-V> <ni*a/lirtlf J111C rlo/lll VI i V '. fl.S_ ft. 
.... _____ pack 1 , 10 (6). ---- ,.- v--- r -,, . , 
Pope, Iliad, xl. 728. steeplebush (ste'pl-bush), n. The hardback; steepness; with precipitous declivity: as, a 
4. To imbue or impregnate as with a specified also, Kpirsea salieifolia. See Spirsea. height rising steeply. 
influence; cause to become permeated or per- steeplechase (ste'pl -chas), n. A horse-race 
vaded(with): followed by in. across a tract of country in which ditches. 
At this point it [the highway] steeply overtops the fields 
on one side. HoweUs, Indian summer, . 
