[f. STEEP a.]
1. trans. To place in a sloping position. Now only dial., to tilt (a cask). Cf. STOOP v.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. i. 20. Then did the God her body forwards steepe, And cast her for a while into a sleepe.
1837. J. F. Palmer, Gloss. to Mrs. Palmer’s Dialogue Devon Dial., To Steep, to tilt or give an inclination to a barrel which is nearly run out.
1886. W. Somerset Word-bk.
2. To make a slope on the top or side of (a) a hedge; (b) a stack. (See quots.) dial.
(a) 1741. in Hartland (Devon) Gloss., s.v. Steep, Shall not cut shrid lop or steep any hedge or hedges.
1837. J. F. Palmer, Gloss. to Mrs. Palmer’s Dialogue Devon Dial., To Steep,… to dress or trim a hedge.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 724/1. (Devon.), to lade and steep hedges is to lay them down and bank up with earth.
(b) 1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Steep, to top up or make up a rick.
1887. Kentish Gloss., s.v., To steep a stack, is to make the sides smooth and even, and to slope it up to the point of the roof.
3. intr. Of a cliff: To form a steep; to ‘drop.’ Also of the sea: To slope.
1890. W. Clark Russell, Ocean Trag., I. iii. 46. He might just get a glimpse of green shore with a tremble of water yellow under the western light steeping to it.
1911. Nation, 16 Dec., 469/2. Cuba ends to the south in a huge hammer of mountains eight thousand feet high and steeping sheer into the sea.
