steups
steups noun: the sound made by sucking one's teeth.
Noun
steups (plural steupses)
- The sound made by sucking one's teeth.
- A loud steups followed.2003, Ramabai Espinet, The Swinging Bridge, page 45
- He thought he heard a loud steups somewhere from the dark.2004, Anson Gonzalez, Crossroads of Dream, page 57
Verb
steups (third-person singular simple present steupses, present participle steupsing, simple past and past participle steupsed)
- To suck one's teeth, indicating disappointment, derision or disgust.
- ‘Here?’ Petronella steups. ‘Where you think here is?’2022, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, When We Were Birds, Hamish Hamilton, page 104
- Synonyms:
- kiss one's teeth, suck one's teeth
Synonyms of steups
Forms of steups
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | steupses |
| alternative form | stewps |
| alternative form | chupes |
| alternative form | chupse |
| alternative form | cheups |
| alternative form | steupse |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | steupses |
| present participle | steupsing |
| past participle | steupsed |
| past | steupsed |
Origin of steups
Imitative of the act of sucking one's teeth as a gesture of annoyance or disapproval. Native to the English-speaking West Indies, e.g. Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago etc. In Jamaica, the term "kissing teeth" is used instead.
Questions about steups
- What does steups mean?
- Steups means the sound made by sucking one's teeth.
- What part of speech is steups?
- Steups can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of steups?
- The plural of steups is steupses.
Words near steups in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: steups (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:
Cite this entry: “steups.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steups. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.