steer

UK/stɪə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/stɪː/

steer verb: to guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).

Verb (1)

steer (third-person singular simple present steers, present participle steering, simple past and past participle steered)

(intransitive) To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).
- The boat steered towards the iceberg.
- I steered homeward.
(transitive) To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).
- I find it very difficult to steer a skateboard.
- When planning the boat trip, we had completely forgotten that we needed somebody to steer.
(intransitive) To be directed and governed; to take a direction, or course; to obey the helm.
- The boat steers easily.
- Where the wind / Veers oft, as oft [a ship] so steers, and shifts her sail.1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9
(transitive) To direct a group of animals.
(transitive) To maneuver or manipulate a person or group into a place or course of action.
- Hume believes that principles of association steer the imagination of artists.
(reflexive) To conduct oneself; to take or pursue a course of action.
(transitive) To direct a conversation.
(transitive) To direct or send an object into a specific place
- Sterling, who scored the winners against Croatia and the Czech Republic in the group stage, steered in Luke Shaw's cross after 75 minutes to send England's fans, with more than 40,000 inside Wembley, into wild celebrations.2021 June 29, Phil McNulty, “England 2-0 Germany”, in BBC Sport

Noun (1)

steer (plural steers)

(informal) A suggestion about a course of action.
- I tried to give you the steer, but I guess I didn't get it over. Everybody knew it but you.1939, Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties
(obsolete) A helmsman; a pilot.

Noun (2)

steer (plural steers)

The castrated male of cattle, especially one raised for beef production.
- He counted the cattle over and over. It diverted him to speculate as to how much weight each of the steers would probably put on by spring.1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, chapter 2
Synonyms:

ox

Verb (2)

steer (third-person singular simple present steers, present participle steering, simple past and past participle steered)

(transitive) To castrate (a male calf).

Proper noun capitalized: Steer

Steer (plural Steers)

A surname.

steer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

steer in Hindi

direct the conversation: बात आगे बढ़ाना bāt āge baṛhānā

steer in Tamil

வழியறிந்து செலுத்து, விரையடிக்கப்பட்ட இளம் எருது, நான்கு வயதிற்குட்பட்ட எருது

steer in Telugu

to steer or command: త్రిప్పు trippu, తిప్పు tippu

More languagesFewer languages

steer in Malayalam: ചുക്കാൻപിടിക്കുക, വാഹനം ഓടിക്കുക, ചുക്കാൻ തിരിക്കുക, ഗതി നിയന്ത്രിക്കുക
steer in Kannada: ಹೋರಿ, ಎತ್ತು, ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸು, ಚುಕ್ಕಾಣಿ ಹಿಡಿ
steer in Gujarati: બળદ baḷda
steer in Sanskrit: राष्टि rāṣṭi
steer in Arabic: قَادَ qāda, ثَوْر ṯawr
steer in Persian: گاو گوشتی gāv-e gušti
steer in Thai: ถือพวงมาลัย tĕu puang maalai

Examples of steer in a sentence

The car steers cleanly, but the gearshift has a few quirks.
I pantomimed steering a car; he understood, and tossed the keys to me.
Flares were used to steer the traffic away from the accident.

All 40 example sentences with steer

Synonyms of steer

Forms of steer

Verb
third-person singular present	steers
present participle	steering
past participle	steered
past	steered
Noun
plural	steers
Proper noun
plural	Steers

Past tense of steer: steered

Origin of steer

Inherited from Middle English steeren, steren, stiren, sturen, steoren, from Old English stēoran, stīeran, stȳran (“to steer; guide a vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurijan (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną (“to steer”). The noun is from Middle English steere, stere (“rudder”), steor, from Old English stēor, stȳr (“steering; guidance; direction”). Compare Dutch stuur, German Steuer, Icelandic stýri.

Inherited from Middle English steer, ster, from Old English stēor (“a young bull or cow; steer”), from Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“bull; steer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)táwros (“wild bull; aurochs”). Cognate with Dutch stier, German Stier, Icelandic stjór, Latin taurus (“bull”), Greek ταύρος (távros). Doublet of tur and Taurus.

Words formed from steer

Phrases with steer

Words that rhyme with steer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about steer

What does steer mean?: Steer means to guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).
What is steer in Hindi?: Steer in Hindi is बात आगे बढ़ाना (bāt āge baṛhānā). See Steer meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is steer?: Steer can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce steer?: Steer is pronounced /stɪə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of steer?: The past tense of steer is steered.

Words near steer in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: steer (page history and authors); Steer (page history and authors); steer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Steer (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తిప్పు (Telugu) (page history and authors); steer (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); steer (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); બળદ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-steer.ogg.

Cite this entry: “steer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.