Also 7–9 step. [a. Russian степь. Cf. F., G. steppe.]
1. One of the vast comparatively level and treeless plains of south-eastern Europe and Siberia.
1671. [S. Collins], Pres. St. Russia, xviii. 81. Going towards the more Southern parts of Syberia, you shall see a Wilderness called the Step.
1710. Whitworth, Acc. Russia (1758), 119. The place being on the step, or desert.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 478. The Steppe, or wide desert plain of Astracan,… is a dreary waste.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 319. The great steppe of Tartary … is unexplored.
1876. Burnaby, Ride to Khiva, xxvi. 240. The Turkomans and other nomad races in the steppes often attribute a disease or illness to the devil.
2. transf. An extensive plain, usually treeless.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville (1849), 61. These great steppes, which range along the feet of the Rocky Mountains.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 43. Saline steppes, where the soil is impregnated with salt, but where the foliage is not influenced by a saline atmosphere.
1878. A. K. Johnston, Africa, ii. 20. These rocky steppes possess but few streams.
1903. W. R. Fisher, trans. Schimper’s Plant Geog., 551. The steppe of the Hungarian plain exhibits close climatic similarity to that of South Russia.
3. attrib. and Comb., as steppe bird, country, district, fauna, horse, lake, land, -travelling; steppe cat, the manul (Felis manul or caudatus); steppe-murrain = RINDERPEST; steppe rue, the plant Peganum Harmala, the seeds of which are sometimes eaten as a narcotic.
1884. H. Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, II. 234. Richard’s Pipit is essentially a *steppe bird.
1885. Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), V. 462. The *Steppe Cat … of Bokhara.
1911. Marett, Anthropol., iv. 106. From the Lower Danube as far as China, stretches a belt of grassland or *steppe-country at a lower level.
1903. W. R. Fisher, trans. Schimper’s Plant Geog., 594. *Steppe districts.
1898. Archæol. Jrnl., Ser. II. V. 284. The Tundra fauna [had] given place to the *Steppe fauna.
1877. C. Geikie, Christ, xxv. (1879), 272. Their lean and untiring *steppe horses.
1901. Geogr. Jrnl. (R.G.S.), XVIII. 92. A typical *steppe-lake.
1901. Wide World Mag., VI. 444/1. The *steppe lands … in Western Siberia.
1865. Athenæum, 7 Oct., 473/2. Pulmonary and *steppe murrain.
1881. Spon’s Encycl. Industr. Arts, etc. IV. 1324. Syrian or *Steppe Rue.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xvi. The monotony of Australian *steppe-travelling.
Hence Steppe-ful nonce-wd.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., 37. [He] could let me have a steppe-ful of horses if I desired.
