Sc. and north. Forms: 6 steppe, 9 staup, stawp, step, stap. [Of obscure origin.] A stave of a tub or cask. Chiefly in fig. phrases: see quots.
1587. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), III. 522/1. Þat þe steppis of þe said firlot be of þe auld proportione, in thiknes of bayth the burdis, ane insche and ane half.
1808. Jamieson, Stap, Steppe, a stave. I’ll tak a stap out of your coag, S. Prov., I’ll put you on shorter allowance.
1821. Blackw. Mag., VIII. 432. But stoups are needed, tubs, and pails, and knaps, For all the old are ‘gisand’ into staps.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., To fa’ a’ staps, to become extremely debilitated, q[uasi] to fall to pieces, like a vessel made of staves.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Stap, the stave of a tub.
1829. Hogg, Sheph. Cal., I. vi. 170. Else I should take a staup out o’ their punch cogs the night.
1846. Brockett’s N. C. Gloss. (ed. 3), s.v., ‘To take a stap out of your bicker’ means to humble you.
1891. H. Johnston, Kilmallie, I. 96. It behoved me and the likes o’ me to keep a calm sough, if we didna want a step taen oot o’ our cog.
