a. Obs. exc. arch. Also 6 stipye, ste(i)pie, 7 steepie, ? steppie. [f. STEEP a. + -Y.] Steep; full of steep places; precipitous.
1565. Stapleton, trans. Bede’s Hist. Ch. Eng., 147. Stipye and craggie hylles.
c. 1590. Marlowe’s Faustus (1616), 1268. (Brooke) This Traytor flies vnto some steepie rocke.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 52. A steepie and rockie dale.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 98. So Ships in Winter-Seas now sliding sink Adown the steepy Wave.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. vi. 30/2. If … we … view the earth cut perpendicularly downwards, either in the banks of rivers, or steepy sea-shores.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xxii. Through Calpe’s straits survey the steepy shore.
1872. Howells, Wedd. Journ. (1892), 285. That huge rock, base and steepy flank and crest.
Comb. 1638. Brathwait, Barnabees Jrnl., I. (1818), 33. Thence to Kighley, where are mountaines Steepy-threatning.
1672. Dryden, 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada, III. iv. 130. I … found th’ eternal fence so steepy high.
b. fig.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., lxiii. 5. When his youthfull morne Hath trauaild on to Ages steepie night.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xix. 36. The leape from an ill beeing, vnto a not beeing is not so dangerous or steepie; as it is from a delightfull and flowrishing beeing, vnto a painefull and sorrowfull condition.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 216. Because the limits are obscure, and steepy, and slippery, and narrow.
1616. W. Drummond of Hawth., Sonn. ‘Ah burning Thoughts.’ What though I trace not right Heauens steppie Wayes?
c. of movement.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 860. Now take thy steepy flight from Heav’n, and see If thou canst find on Earth another He. Ibid. (1697), Æneis, II. 670. The Night … view’d with equal Face Her steepy rise, and her declining Race.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 1. Large currents flow from different parts of the main ridge, and continue their winding steepy courses to the sea.
