steening (stening)

[Also steaning; verbal n. of steen, v.] 1. Any kind of path or road paved with small round stones. Hall i well. [Prov. Eng.]-2. In arch., the brick or stone wall or lining of a well or ce pool, the use of which is to prevent the irruption of the surrounding soil. Also steining. steenkirk (stēn'kėrk), n. [Also, le prop., stein kirk; so called in allusion to the battle fought in 1692 near Steenkerke, F. Ste inker que (lit. 'stone church'), a town in Belgium.] A name brought into fashion, after the battle of Steenkirk, for several articles, especially of dre , as wigs, buckles, large neckties, and powder; especially, a cravat of fine lace, loosely and negligently knotted, with long hanging ends, one of which was often pa ed through a buttonhole. Mrs. Calico . I hope your Lordship is pleased with your Steenkirk . Lord F. In love with it, stap my vitals! Bring your Bill; you shall be paid to-marrow. Vanbrugh , The Relapse, i. 3. I had yielded up my cravat (a smart Steinkirk , by the way, and richly laced). Scott , Rob Roy, xxx i. Ladies also wore them [neckcloths], as in "The Carele Husband" Lady Easy takes her Steinkirk from her Neck and lays it gently over his Head. Ashton , Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, I. 148. steenstrupine (stēn's trup-in), n. [Named after K.J.V. Steen str up, a Danish naturalist.) A rare mineral occurring in ma ive forms and rhombohedral crystals of a brown color in the sodalite syenite of Green land. It is a silicate of the rare metals of the cerium group, also thorium, and other elements. steep1 (step), a. and n. [ Two of these Ilands are steepe and vpright as any wall, that it is not po ible to climbe them. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 748. Thus far our ascent was easy; but now it began to grow more steep , and difficult. Maundrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 119. 21. Elevated; high; lofty. To a room they came, Steep and of state. Chapman . ( Imp . Dict .) 3. Exce ive; difficult; forbidding: as, a steep undertaking; a steep price. [Colloq.] Perhaps if we should meet Shakspeare we should not be conscious of any steep inferiority. Emerson , E ays, 1st ser., p. 302. Neither priest nor squire was able to establish any steep difference in outward advantages between himself and the commons among whom he lived. Froude , Sketches, p. 164. 41. Bright; glittering; fiery. His eyen steepe and rollynge in his heede. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. Т., 1. 201. His Ene [eyes] leuenaund with light as a low fyn, With stremys [gleams] full stithe in his stepe loke. Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7724. II. n. A steep or precipitous place; an abrupt ascent or descent; a precipice. Suddenly a splendor like the morn Pervaded all the beetling gloomy steeps . Keats , Hyper i on, ii. Yet up the radiant steeps that I survey Death never climbed. Bryant , To the A pennines.