[STEP sb.] A ladder that has flat steps instead of rungs.
1751. Hist. Acc. New Forest, etc. 49. Step Ladders were fixed against the Wall of the Park [Richmond] in divers Parts.
1795. Helen M. Williams, Lett. France, II. 12 (Jod.). One of the secrets of Robespierre’s government was to employ as the step-ladders of his ambition, men whose characters were marked with opprobrium.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. 239. The staircase … is as much like a step-ladder in a dark corner as any thing well can be.
1904. May Sinclair, Divine Fire, iii. 22. It was in the corner by the window, standing on a step-ladder, and fumbling in the darkness for a copy of Demosthenes, De Corona, that he lit on his first Idea.
b. attrib.
1908. Daily Graphic, 21 March, 13/2. The chemise and step-ladder patterns [of sleeve] are the two … most insistent applicants for our favour. Ibid. Step-ladder sleeves are distant relatives of the Kimono.
