📖 S — The English dictionary · page 94

steep — Everyday, meaning 1: Rising or falling sharply, like a slope that is hard to climb.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A price that is much too high.↗ e.g. "That's a bit steep!"↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A big change.↗ e.g. "a steep rise in prices".↗ Everyday, meaning 4: As a verb, to soak something in liquid, like tea leaves in hot water.↗ Example: The hill was too steep to ride up.↗ · Walk carefully down the steep path.↗ · A steeper ramp makes the ball roll faster.↗ · On the graph, the line gets steep when the temperature rises fast.↗ · Ten dollars for a drink is a bit steep!↗ · Steep the tea for three minutes.↗ · Then they knocked at the door, which opened straight on to a steep staircase.↗ · And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.↗ (Prophets MIC.1.4, JPS 1917)↗

steeple — Everyday, meaning 1: A steeple is the tall pointed tower on top of a church.↗ Example: The church steeple is very tall.↗ · A bell rang from the steeple.↗ · Birds nested high in the steeple.↗

steepness — Everyday, meaning 1: Steepness is how steep something is: how sharply a slope, hill, road or roof goes up or down.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (maths) In maths the steepness of a line is measured by its gradient or slope: how far it goes up for every step across.↗ Example: The steepness of the hill made us get off our bikes and push.↗ · On a map, close contour lines show great steepness.↗ · We changed the steepness of the ramp and timed the car.↗ · The steepness of the roof lets snow slide off.↗ · The steepness of the line on the graph shows how fast the plant grew.↗ · Grandad was worried about the steepness of the steps.↗

steer — Everyday, meaning 1: To steer is to control which way a car, bike, boat or other vehicle goes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To steer is also to guide a person or a talk in a certain direction.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A steer is a young male cow kept for meat.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A steer (informal) is a piece of advice or a hint.↗ Example: Steer your bike around the puddle.↗ · Dad steered the car into the parking space.↗ · The captain steered the ship into the harbour.↗ · Steer clear of that dog; it bites.↗ · The teacher steered the talk back to maths.↗ · The farmer sold three steers at the market.↗ · Hold the handlebars with both hands so you can steer.↗ · She steered her little brother away from the road.↗ · So she ordered the old boatman to steer for Squirrel Island.↗

steersman — Everyday, meaning 1: (old use) A steersman is the person who steers a boat or ship, keeping it on its course.↗ Example: The steersman held the wheel steady.↗ · Our steersman called out the course.↗ · A good steersman knows the stars.↗

stegosaurus — Everyday, meaning 1: A stegosaurus was a large plant-eating dinosaur with two rows of big bony plates along its back and sharp spikes on its tail.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The name means «roof lizard» because people once thought its plates lay flat like roof tiles.↗ Example: The stegosaurus had plates on its back and spikes on its tail.↗ · Stegosaurus ate ferns and low plants.↗ · We saw a stegosaurus skeleton at the Natural History Museum.↗ · A stegosaurus was as long as a bus.↗ · Its brain was surprisingly small, about the size of a dog's.↗ · The plates may have helped it warm up or show off to other stegosauruses.↗ · My little brother's favourite dinosaur toy is a green stegosaurus.↗

stele — Everyday, meaning 1: (history) An upright stone slab or pillar with writing or carvings on it, put up as a monument, gravestone or to record laws or events.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (science, botany) The central core of a plant's root or stem, which carries water and food.↗ Example: Hammurabi's laws were carved on a tall black stele.↗ · The Rosetta Stone is a broken piece of a stele.↗ · The Maya put up stelae to honour their kings.↗ · The stele marks the grave of an ancient soldier.↗ · We saw a carved stele in the British Museum.↗ · The archaeologists cleaned the stele to read the old writing.↗

stellar — Everyday, meaning 1: Stellar means about stars in space: stellar light, stellar systems.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal) Stellar means excellent, brilliant, outstanding: a stellar performance.↗ Example: Our Sun is a stellar object, just one star among billions.↗ · Astronomers study stellar explosions called supernovae.↗ · The Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery.↗ · She gave a stellar performance in the school play.↗ · The goalkeeper had a stellar season.↗ · Your homework is stellar; well done!↗ · Stellar winds blow particles out from stars.↗

stem — Everyday, meaning 1: A stem is the long thin part of a plant that holds up the leaves and flowers.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A stem is also any thin part like that, such as the stem of a wine glass or an apple stalk.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In grammar, the stem is the main part of a word before endings are added.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To stem from means to come from or be caused by.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: STEM means science, technology, engineering and maths.↗ Example: The stem holds the flower up towards the sun.↗ · Water travels up the stem to the leaves.↗ · Cut the stems of the roses before you put them in a vase.↗ · Pull the stem off the apple.↗ · In a stem-and-leaf plot, 34 has stem 3 and leaf 4.↗ · Her fear of dogs stems from a bad bite.↗ · Our school has a STEM club on Fridays.↗ · The stem of «running» is «run».↗ · There were no fewer than thirty blossoms on its stem.↗

stench — Everyday, meaning 1: A stench is a very bad smell.↗ Example: The stench of the bins filled the street.↗ · We held our noses at the stench.↗ · A stench rose from the swamp.↗ · Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their carcasses shall come up, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.↗ (Prophets ISA.34.3, JPS 1917)↗

stencil — Everyday, meaning 1: A stencil is a thin sheet of card, plastic or metal with shapes or letters cut out of it; you paint or colour through the holes to copy the shapes onto a surface underneath.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To stencil is to make a pattern or letters this way.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A stencil can also be the picture made using it.↗ Example: I used a star stencil to decorate my card.↗ · Hold the stencil still and dab paint over it.↗ · We stencilled our names on our school bags.↗ · Banksy is famous for stencil graffiti.↗ · Ancient hand stencils were found on cave walls.↗ · The road workers stencilled "SLOW" on the road.↗ · Use a shape stencil to draw a perfect hexagon.↗

step — Everyday, meaning 1: A step is one movement of your foot when you walk.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Steps are the flat parts of stairs that you walk up.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A step is one part of a process: the first step of a recipe.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To step is to move by lifting your foot and putting it down.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: «Step by step» means slowly, one part after another.↗ Example: Mia walks 2000 steps a day.↗ · The tower has 120 steps.↗ · He climbed 15 steps and then 20 more.↗ · Each step is 2 feet long.↗ · Solve the problem step by step.↗ · Watch your step, the floor is wet.↗ · The baby took her first steps today.↗ · Step aside to let the people pass.↗ · He sat lifeless on the steps.↗ · Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.↗ (Torah EXO.20.26, JPS 1917)↗ · Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗ · whole number of things, we multiply at each step by a number decreased by a unit " (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗ · I would with one step burn it altogether.↗ (Prophets ISA.27.4, JPS 1917)↗ · How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O prince's daughter!↗ (Writings SNG.7.2, JPS 1917)↗ · Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?↗ (Writings JOB.31.4, JPS 1917)↗

stepbrother — Everyday, meaning 1: A boy or man who is the son of your stepmother or stepfather, but not the son of your own mother or father.↗ Example: My stepbrother and I share a bedroom at weekends.↗ · When Mum married Tom, his son became my stepbrother.↗ · Cinderella had stepsisters, not stepbrothers.↗ · I have one sister and two stepbrothers.↗ · My stepbrother taught me how to ride a skateboard.↗ · We are not related by blood, but he is my stepbrother.↗

stepdaughter — Everyday, meaning 1: A stepdaughter is a girl who is the child of your husband or wife from an earlier marriage, not your own child by birth.↗ Example: The stepdaughter did all the work.↗ · My stepdaughter lives with us at weekends.↗ · The king's stepdaughter was kind to the birds.↗

stepfather — Everyday, meaning 1: A stepfather is a man who is married to your mother but is not your birth father.↗ Example: My stepfather takes me to football practice.↗ · Her mum married again, so she has a stepfather now.↗ · I call my stepfather by his first name.↗ · My stepdad makes the best pancakes.↗ · He has a father and a stepfather who both love him.↗ · Tom's stepfather came to the school play.↗ · A stepfather is part of a blended family.↗ · The young prince was thankful that his stepfather was going to the war, and secretly hoped he might never come back.↗

stepmother — Everyday, meaning 1: The woman who is married to (or the partner of) your father but is not your birth mother.↗ Example: My stepmother helps me with my homework.↗ · Dad married my stepmother when I was six.↗ · Cinderella's stepmother made her do all the chores.↗ · I call my stepmother by her first name.↗ · My stepmother and my mum both came to the school play.↗ · Fairy tales often have a wicked stepmother, but mine is lovely.↗ · Then her stepmother came back too.↗

stepparent — Everyday, meaning 1: A stepparent is the person who is married to your mother or father but is not your birth parent: a stepmother or a stepfather.↗ Example: My stepparent, Mark, helps me with my maths homework.↗ · When Mum married Dave, he became my stepparent.↗ · Lots of kids in my class have a stepparent.↗ · A stepparent can love a child just like a birth parent.↗ · Cinderella's stepparent was very cruel to her.↗ · Both my stepparents came to sports day.↗

steppe — Everyday, meaning 1: A huge, flat area of grassland with few trees, especially in eastern Europe and Asia.↗ Example: Herds of horses roamed the steppe.↗ · The steppes of Central Asia stretch for thousands of miles.↗ · Few trees grow on the steppe because it is dry.↗ · Nomads lived in tents on the steppe.↗ · The steppe is like the prairie of North America.↗ · Ukraine has wide steppes in the south.↗ · And Saul cast the spear; for he said: 'I will smite David even to the wall.'↗ And David stepped aside out of his presence twice.↗ (Prophets 1SA.18.11, JPS 1917)↗

stepsister — Everyday, meaning 1: A girl or woman who is the daughter of your stepmother or stepfather, but not the daughter of your own mother or father.↗ Example: My stepsister is the same age as me.↗ · Cinderella's stepsisters made her do all the work.↗ · I get on really well with my stepsister.↗ · When Dad married Sarah, her daughter Lucy became my stepsister.↗ · My stepsister lives with us every other week.↗ · We have two stepsisters and one brother.↗ · My stepsisters have sent me to you for a light."↗

stepson — Everyday, meaning 1: A stepson is a boy who is the child of your husband or wife from an earlier marriage, not your own child by birth.↗ Example: The stepson hurried home.↗ · He called his stepson to him.↗ · My stepson plays football on Saturdays.↗

stereotype — Everyday, meaning 1: A stereotype is a fixed, too-simple idea about what all people of one group are like, for example that all girls like pink or all old people are slow.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To stereotype people is to judge them by such an idea instead of as the person they really are.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A stereotype is a character in a story who is not real or deep but is made from such a simple idea.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: As an adjective, stereotype can mean fixed and unoriginal, like a joke or remark that is said over and over.↗ Example: It is a stereotype that boys don't cry.↗ · The advert used the old stereotype of the grumpy teenager.↗ · Don't stereotype people because of where they come from.↗ · She broke the stereotype by becoming the first female captain of the team.↗ · In our book, the witch is a stereotype: ugly, cruel and cackling.↗ · Stereotypes can make people feel left out.↗ · He was stereotyped as lazy, but he worked harder than anyone.↗ · Ha! ha! ha!” screamed Polly, and added his stereotype witticism.↗ “Come, let us be men!”↗

sterile — Everyday, meaning 1: Sterile means completely clean and free from germs (bacteria and viruses): sterile bandages, a sterile operating room.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Sterile means unable to have babies or young, or (of plants) unable to make seeds or fruit.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Sterile land cannot grow crops.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: Sterile also means dull, lifeless, without ideas or warmth: a sterile argument, a sterile room.↗ Example: Doctors use sterile gloves during operations.↗ · The nurse opened a sterile bandage.↗ · Boiling water can make baby bottles sterile.↗ · A mule is usually sterile, so it cannot have foals.↗ · The desert soil was sterile and nothing grew.↗ · The new office felt sterile, with white walls and no plants.↗ · In the lab, keep the dish sterile so no germs grow.↗