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Leaning o’er the rails, he musing stood. 
And view’d below the black canal of mud, 
Where common sewers a lulling murmur keep, 
Whose torrents rush from Holborn’s fatal steep. Gay. 
To STEEP, v. a. [stippen , Dutch.] To soak; to ma¬ 
cerate ; to imbue ; to dip. 
When his brother saw the red blood trail 
Adown so fast, and all his armour steep. 
For very fellness loud he gan to weep. Spenser. 
Wheat steeped in brine twelve hours prevents the smut¬ 
tiness. Mortimer. 
STEEP, a township of England, in Southamptonshire; 
I mile north of Petersfield. Population 436. 
STEEP POINT, a cape on the south coast of the island 
of Java. Lat. 7. 32. S. long. 107. 3. E. 
STEEP ROCKS, a ridge of rocks in the United States, 
forming the west bank of Hudson’s river, beginning about 
II miles north of New York, and continuing, with some 
interruptions, 11 or 13 miles. 
STEEPHOLMES, a small rocky islet of England, in the 
Bristol channel, under Quantock hills, which divides the 
counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Bristol. It is a vast 
rock, about 1| mile in circumference, in many parts over¬ 
hanging the water, and inaccessible except by two very steep 
and dangerous passages. A few rabbits find subsistence upon 
it; and in summer it is the resort of vast numbers of sea- 
fowl. 
STEE'PINESS, s. State or quality of being steep.—The 
cragginess and steepincss of places up and down is a great 
advantage to the dwellers, and makes them inaccessible. 
Howell. 
STEEPING, Great and Little, two adjoining parishes 
of England, in Lincolnshire; 3£ miles south-east of Spilsby. 
STEE'PLE, s. [ptepel, jrypel, Saxon.] A turret of a 
church generally furnished with bells ; a spire. 
They, far from steeples and their sacred sound, 
In fields their sullen conventicles found. Dry den. 
STEEPLE, a parish of England, in Dorsetshire; 4 miles 
west-bv-south of Corfe Castle. 
STEEPLE, a parish of England, in Essex, situated on a 
creek of the Blackwater; 5 miles west-south-west of Brad- 
well. 
STEEPLE BARTON, a parish of England, in Oxford¬ 
shire ; 5 miles from Deddington. 
STEEPLE, Claydon, a parish of England, in Bucking¬ 
hamshire, 3J miles from Winslow. 
STEEPLE Magna, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire, 
half a mile distant from the foregoing. 
STEEPLE-MORDON, a parish of England, in Cambridge¬ 
shire ; 3£ miles from Royston. Population 483. 
STEE'PLED, adj. Towered; adorned as with towers. 
—A steepled turbant on her head she wore. Fairfax. 
STEE'PI.EHOUSE, s. A term given by the separatists 
to the churches of the established religion.—About caps and 
hoods, vestures and gestures, steeplehouses and churches, 
what fierce conflicts ! Bp. Taylor. 
STEEPLETON PRESTON, a parish of England, in 
Dorsetshire ; 4 miles north-north-west of Blandford Forum. 
STEE'PLY, adv. With precipitous declivity. 
STEE'PNESS, s. Precipitous declivity. — Lord Lovel 
swam over the Trent on horseback, but could not recover the 
farther side, by reason of the steepness of the bank, and so 
was drowned. Bacon. 
STEE'PY, adj. Having a precipitous declivity. A poe¬ 
tical word. 
No more, my goats, shall I behold you climb 
The steepy cliffs, or crop the fiow’ry thyme. Dryden. 
STEER, s. [ stiurs , Goth.; jxype, pteop, Sax.; stier. 
Germ. Watcher and Serenius gave the more ancient words, 
tiur, Su. Goth.; tyr, Icel.; tarns, Welsh, from the Celt. 
taro, tarn, to but, to strike; whence probably the Latin 
taurusi] A young bullock. 
Nor has the steer. 
At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs. 
E’er plow’d for him. Thomson. 
To STEER, v. a. [s tiur an, Goth.; styra, stiorna, Icel, 
jxeopan, jxypan, Sax.; stieren, Dutch.] To direct; to 
guide in a passage : originally used of a ship, but applied to 
other things. 
A comely palmer, clad in black attire. 
Of ripest years, and hairs all hoary gray. 
That with a staff his feeble steps did steer. 
Lest his long way his aged limbs should tire. Spenser. 
To STEER, v. 72. To direct a course at sea.—In a crea¬ 
ture, whose thoughts are more than the sands, and wider than 
the ocean, fancy and passion must needs run him into 
strange courses, if reason, which is his only star and compass, 
be not that he steers by. Locke. —To conduct himself. 
STEER, s. The instrument at the stern of the vessel by 
which its course is regulated.—A naked ship without stere. 
Gower. 
STEE'RAGE, s. The act or practice of steering.—Hav¬ 
ing got his vessel launched and set afloat, he committed the 
steerage of it to such as he thought capable of conducting 
it. Spectator. —Direction ; regulation of a course. 
He that hath the steerage of my course. 
Direct my suit. Shakspeare. 
That by which any course is guided. 
His costly frame 
Inscrib’d to Phoebus, here he hung on high, 
The steerage of his wings, and cut the sky. Dryden. 
Regulation or management of any thing. 
You raise the honour of the peerage, 
Proud to attend you at the steerage. Swift . 
The stern or hinder part of the ship. 
STEE'RER, s. A steersman; a pilot. Unused. 
STEE'RLESS, adj. Having no steer or rudder. 
In a ship stere/ess (God wot) 
They han her set, and bidden her learne sayle. Chaucer. 
STEE'RSMATE, or Stee'rsman, s. [jxeopep-mon, 
Sax.] A pilot; one who steers a-ship. 
The steersman seeks a readier course to run, 
The souldier stirs, the gunner hies to gun. Mir. for Mag. 
What pilot so expert but needs must wreck. 
Embark’d with such a steersmate at the helm. Milton. 
STEETON, a hamlet of England, in the parish of Bolton, 
Yorkshire ; 7 miles from York. 
STEETON, a parish of England, West Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 3 miles north-west of Keighley. Population 545. 
STEEVENS (George), the most successful of all the 
editors and commentators of Shakspeare, born at Poplar in 
the year 1735 or 1736, was the son of an East India captain, 
afterwards a director of the company. The subject of this 
article received the elements of his education at Kingston- 
upon-Thames, and he had Gibbon, the celebrated historian, 
for his school-fellow. From hence he went to Eton, and 
in a few years was admitted a fellow commoner of King’s 
college, Cambridge, and having acquired a large portion of 
classical literature, with a general taste for learned pursuits, 
he devoted his time and fortune to the study and collection 
of books. 
On the first establishment of the Essex militia he accepted 
a commission, but he spent the concluding years of his life 
in almost total seclusion from the world, seldom mingling 
with society, but was found either in the shops of book¬ 
sellers, in the Shakspeare gallery, or in the morning con¬ 
versations of Sir Joseph Banks. 
Although not an original writer, he deserves a place 
among the chief literary characters of the age, considering 
the works which he illustrated, and the learning, sagacity, 
taste, and general knowledge which he constantly exhibited 
in his writings. With a great versatility of talents, he was 
eminent both by his pen and pencil; but his chief excellence 
lay 
