understeps

Noun

understep (plural understeps)

1. A gait in which the hind feet touch the ground behind the point where the front feet touch the ground.
   • The resulting trail is an understep walk—the hind tracks in each pair register behind the front tracks.2010, Louis Liebenberg, Adriaan Louw, Mark Elbroch, Practical Tracking: A Guide to Following Footprints and Finding Animals, →ISBN
2. A step that acts as a base to hold something.
   • Written in minuscule script and placed on the shaded understep at the feet of the Virgin, the pious dedication was appropriate for the subject and its intended location.2009, Gretchen A. Hirschauer, Catherine A. Metzger, Peter Cherry, Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life, page 10
3. The underside of a step.
   • In the back room and understeps, recessed lights are used.1984, Edie Lee Cohen, Sherman R. Emery, Dining by design, page 118
4. A movement in which one understeps.
   • Understeps were easy to detect, as the paw missed the rung entirely and the rat had to catch itself so it didn't stumble.2012, Adam Wolfberg, Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU, →ISBN

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