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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.

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Examples

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  • the verb. like tea.

    June 30, 2008