Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Steeple

Stee′ple (stē′p'l), n. [OE. stepel, AS. stēpel, stȳpel; akin to E. steep, a.] (Arch.) A spire; also, the tower and spire taken together; the whole of a structure if the roof is of spire form. See Spire. "A weathercock on a steeple." Shak.

Rood steeple. See Rood tower, under Rood. — Steeple bush (Bot.), a low shrub (Spiræa tomentosa) having dense panicles of minute rose-colored flowers; hardhack. — Steeple chase, a race across country between a number of horsemen, to see which can first reach some distant object, as a church steeple; hence, a race over a prescribed course obstructed by such obstacles as one meets in riding across country, as hedges, walls, etc. — Steeple chaser, one who rides in a steeple chase; also, a horse trained to run in a steeple chase. — Steeple engine, a vertical back-acting steam engine having the cylinder beneath the crosshead. — Steeple house, a church. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.