a. Obs. exc. poet. [f. STEEP a. + DOWN adv. Cf. STEEP-UP.] Precipitous.
1530. Palsgr., 827/1. Stepe downe, tout bas en droycte lygne.
1545. Elyot, Dict., Cliuosus,… pitching doune, or stiepe doune.
1560. Bible (Geneva), Matt. viii. 32. The whole herd of swine was caryed with violence from a stiepe downe place into the sea.
1584–7. Greene, Carde of Fancie, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 74. The cliffes so steep-downe and feareful, as to descend was no lesse daunger then death it selfe.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 280. Whip me ye Diuels…: Wash me in steepe-downe gulfes of Liquid fire.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, III. xiv. You see Him till into the steep-down West He throws his course.
1828. Tennyson, Lover’s Tale, 390. Steep-down walls of battlemented rock.
† b. Of a shower. Obs.
1601. W. Watson, Import. Consid. (1831), 30. A steep-down shower of stormy sorrows.
