steer
part of speech
verb (steer, steers, steered, steering); noun (a steer, steers)
meaning for a pupil
1) To steer is to control which way a car, bike, boat or other vehicle goes. tree →
2) To steer is also to guide a person or a talk in a certain direction. tree →
3) A steer is a young male cow kept for meat. tree →
4) A steer (informal) is a piece of advice or a hint. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and road safety, you steer a bike with the handlebars and a car with the steering wheel. In science, steering changes direction, which needs a force. In stories, «steer clear of» means keep away from something. Phrases: «steer clear of», «steering wheel», «steer the boat».
examples
- Steer your bike around the puddle. tree →
- Dad steered the car into the parking space. tree →
- The captain steered the ship into the harbour. tree →
- Steer clear of that dog; it bites. tree →
- The teacher steered the talk back to maths. tree →
- The farmer sold three steers at the market. tree →
- Hold the handlebars with both hands so you can steer. tree →
- She steered her little brother away from the road. tree →
- So she ordered the old boatman to steer for Squirrel Island. tree →
note
Past form: steered. Do not confuse «steer» with «stir» (mix with a spoon) or «stare» (look for a long time). A steer (animal) is a male; a heifer is a young female cow.
In the corpora
- It means grown-ups are steering the money so it lasts the whole month.
- Pigs learn names, solve puzzles and in one study even steered a joystick with their snouts to play a simple computer game.
- A dung beetle rolls dung balls to feed its young, steering by the Milky Way.
- A horse comes along the tow-path pulling a barge, steered by a big stout woman in a sun-bonnet.
- The small finger muscles can then steer it.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «steer» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.