steeper

Pluralsteepers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of steep.

   The northern face is steeper than the gentle southern slope.

   The road grew steeper with every mile we climbed.

   Note

   A regular comparative made with -er, and it carries every adjective sense of steep. A slope or a mast angle can grow steeper, and so, informally, can a price that is becoming more expensive. The same spelling is also a noun, as in the soaking vat, built on the verb steep, 'to soak.' Without a following than, a steeper is usually a thing rather than a comparison.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A vessel, vat, or cistern used for soaking things in liquid.

   The maltster drained the steeper before spreading the wet barley to germinate.

   The brewery installed two new steepers along the back wall last year.

   Similarvat, tank, cistern

   Note

   An instrument noun, where -er names the thing that does the steeping, much as boiler names what boils. Its home is industrial. H. Wilson's patent of 1879 describes a row of steepers with perforated false bottoms, piped so that the contents of any cistern can be passed through any one of them. It is plant equipment, usually spoken of in the plural.

3. 3
   noundialectalEnglandScotlandcountable

   A downpour; a heavy, soaking rain.

   The picnic ended abruptly when a steeper swept across the field.

   After two dry weeks, the farmers welcomed the evening steeper.

   Similardownpour, deluge, cloudburst, soaker

   Note

   A regional word of England and Scotland for rain that soaks you through, and it sounds most natural in the dialect speech it comes from. Edwin Waugh's The Hermit Cobbler (1878) has "it's a steeper, and nought else," and the Leeds Mercury Supplement of 1898 has "It's a steeper, nah, is this." It is usually said of the weather in the frame it's a steeper.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The partly cut stem of a shrub or small tree in a hedgerow, bent down and laid during the process of laying a hedge.

   The hedger cut each steeper near the base and bent it sideways into the line.

   A well-laid hedge keeps every steeper alive and growing.

   Similarpleacher

Showing meanings only. Show all 4