vbl. sb. [f. STEP v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of STEP v.; an instance of this.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 649. Per is no waspe in þis werlde þat will wilfulloker styngen For stappyng [v.r. stamping] on a too of a styncande frere.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Marchement plus oultre, a stepping forward.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 130. Nature’s voluntary errors and steppings out of her more common road of Operation.
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 198, note. The Homeric word πλίσσοντο, which in the Odyssey … is applied to the stepping of mules.
1875. M. Arnold, God & Bible, 72. Existence, again, means a stepping forth.
† b. pl. Footsteps, footprints. Obs.
1575. Gascoigne, Posies, Jacasta, V. v. Leade the waye Into the stonie rockes and highest hilles, Where fewest trackes of steppings may be spyde.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, T ij. It is a custome of purloining burglairers, to strew pepper in the tract of their steppings.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. ii. 82. Though short he fall of old Corvino’s age, His steppings with the other footsteps fit.
† c. pl. Gradual advances. Obs.
1651–3. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year (1678), 54. Still the Flood crept by little steppings, and invaded more by his progressions than he lost by his retreat.
d. Places on which to step. rare.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xvii. (1858), 370. That common sense … which enables men to pick their stepping prudently through the journey of life.
2. concr. † a. pl. Steps, stairs. Also, stone for making steps. Obs.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 453. All steppings vp [to the altar] being forbidden.
1676. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 144. Item for Steppings 70 and 1/2 foot at seven shillings per foot.
b. pl. = STEPPING-STONES. dial.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), II. 347.
c. Naut. A rabbet taken out of the deadwood, for the heels of the timbers to step on.
1805. Shipwright’s Vade-M., 135.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 195. At present, however, the cants are heeled against the keel and deadwood without any such stepping.
3. Surveying. A method of ascertaining the horizontal measure of a slope by extending the chain horizontally in a series of successive positions resembling a flight of steps.
1888. B. H. Brough, Mine-Surv., 15. The process is called stepping, and, on steep ground, may be carried on by half-chains, or even shorter distances.
4. attrib., as stepping-board, -line, -piece, -place, -wheel; stepping-off place jocular, the place at the end of the world, whence one steps off into vacancy; stepping-stile = step-stile.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 150/1. The tread-wheel is similar to a common water-wheel. Upon its circumference are *stepping-boards.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 30. Bearding-line,… often called the *stepping-line.
1893. Mrs. Custer, Tenting on Plains, 21. In my mind, Texas then seemed the *stepping-off place.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 83. [Ship-building.] It is usual … to fit a *‘stepping piece.’
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, xiii. By knowing exactly where certain *stepping-places and holdfasts were placed.
1791. Charlotte Smith, Celestina (ed. 2), II. 209. She then went into the park over the *stepping stile.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Engl. Lakes (1879), 143. A stepping-stile leads into the field.
1884. A. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, II. iv. 168. The newly-invented tread-wheels, or *stepping wheels, as they were at first called.
