a. Naut. [f. STEEP a. + TO adv.] (See quot. 1815.)
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. iii. 139. The coast was very high and steep to. Ibid., 141. This Island towards the harbour is steep to, and has six fathom water close to the shore.
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), s.v., A Shore Steep-to … is said of a shore when it descends almost perpendicularly into the water.
1897. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 24. These islands have long been a nursery for whale-fishers, because the cachalot loves their steep-to shores.
