To move the legs and feet as in walking; advance or recede by a movement of the foot or feet: as, to step forward; to step backward: to step up or down.To go; walk; march; especially, to go a short distance: as, to step to a neighbor's house.To advance as if by chance or suddenly; come (in).To walk slowly, gravely, or with dignity.To go in imagination; advance or recede mentally: as, to step back to the England of Elizabeth.To deviate from the right path; err.To set; plant, as in stepping: as, step your foot on this thwart; he has never stepped foot in the city.To measure by stepping: as, to step off the distance.To perform by stepping, as a dance: as, he stepped a stately galliard.To place or set (two or more cutting-tools) in a tool-post or -rest in such manner that they simultaneously make successive cuts each respectively deeper than the preceding one, so that these cuts present the appearance of a series of ledges or steps.Nautical, to fix the foot of (a mast) in its step, as in readiness for setting sail.n. A pace; a completed movement made in raising the foot and setting it down again, as in walking, running, or dancing.n. Hence In the plural, walk; passage; course or direction in which one goes by walking.n. A support for the foot in ascending or descending: as, steps cut in a glacier; a structure or an appliance used to facilitate mounting from one level to another, whether alone or as one of a series: as, a stone step (a block of stone having a horizontal surface for the foot); a step of a staircase (one of the gradients composed of the tread and riser taken together); the step of a ladder (one of the rungs or rounds, or one of the treads or foot-pieces in a step-ladder).n. Specifically— plural A step-ladder. Also called pair of steps and set of steps.n. A foot-piece for entering or alighting from a vehicle.n. The space passed over or measured by one movement of the foot, as in walking; the distance between the feet in walking when both feet are on the ground; a half-pace.n. An inconsiderable space; a short distance; a distance easily walked.n. Gradation; degree.n. Degree in progress or advance; particularly, a forward move; gain or advantage; promotion; rise; a grade, as of rank.n. Print or impression of the foot; footprint; footstep; track.n. Gait; manner of walking; sound of the step; foot; footfall: as, to hear a step at the door.n. A proceeding, or one of a series of proceedings; measure; action: as, a rash step; to take prompt steps to prevent something.n. Nautical, a socket of wood or metal, or, in large ships, a solid platform on the keelson, supporting the heel of a mast.n. In carpentry, any piece of timber having the foot of another fixed upright in it.n. In much.: The lower brass of a journal-box or pillow-block.n. A socket or bearing for the lower pivot of a spindle or vertical shaft.n. In music: Same as degree, whether of the scale or of the staff.n. The interval between two successive degrees of the scale, degrees of the staff, or keys of the keyboard.n. With equal pace; at the same rate of progress.n. A prefix used in composition before father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, child, etc., to indicate that the person spoken of is a connection only by the marriage of a parent.In electricity, to raise or lower (the voltage of an alternating-current circuit) by means of transformers: see to step up and to step down.n. In machinery: The radial distance on a cone or step-pulley of a machine between the belt-face on one diameter and the belt-face on the next larger or smaller. Twice the step is the difference in the diameters of the successive belt-surfaces. In England also called the fall.n. In mathematics, a change of place without rotation.
