steps

Noun

step (plural steps)

1. An advance or movement made from one foot to the other; a pace.
   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp...1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III...

   Synonyms:

   stride

2. A rest, or one of a set of rests, for the foot in ascending or descending, as a stair, or a rung of a ladder.
   • The breadth of every single step or stair should be never less than one foot.1624, Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements Of Architecture
3. The part of a spade, digging stick or similar tool that a digger's foot rests against and presses on when digging; an ear, a foot-rest.
4. The button joining a glass's stem to its foot.
5. A distinct part of a process; stage; phase.
   • He improved step by step, or by steps.
6. A running board where passengers step to get on and off the bus.
   • The driver must have a clear view of the step in order to prevent accidents.

See all 34 meanings of step