See Also: stair(dictionary)
stair(dictionary)

stair (iou)



stair noun.

In pl. (formerly also treated as sing.) & (earlier, now esp. Scot.) sing. A series of fixed steps leading from one level to another; esp. such a series leading from one floor to another inside a building. OE.
below stairs the basement of a house, formerly esp. as the part occupied by servants. moving stair: see MOVING adjective. pair of stairs, two pair of stairs, three pair of stairs: see PAIR noun1.
Dickens She..climbed the winding stair. P. Turnbull 27 Duntarvie Quad was a solid sandstone tenement...The stair was clean and smelled of disinfectant. Which? Risks..caused by..objects left on the stairs.
b. Orig., a ladder. Later, anything resembling a stair in appearance or function. LME.
salmon stair.
c. fig. sing. & (now rare or obsolete) in pl. A means of ascending in rank, power, virtue, etc. L16.
a. A step in a scale of rank or dignity, a level, a degree. Also, a high rank or level. ME-M17.
b. Each of a series of fixed steps leading from one level to another, esp. from one floor to another in a building. (In pl. not always distinguishable from sense 1 above.) LME.
New Yorker Climbing down and up a hundred stairs to go buy something. M. Dibdin The stairs creaked..as she started to climb them. M. Hocking A flight of stairs receded into..the private part of the house.
In pl. & sing. A landing-stage. E16.
Comb.: stairclimber an exercise machine on which the user simulates the action of climbing a staircase; stair-foot the level space in front of the lowest step of a staircase; stairhead the level space at the top of a staircase; stairlift a lift in the form of a chair built into a domestic staircase for conveying disabled people up and down stairs; stair-rod: for securing a carpet in the angle between two steps; stair-step noun, adjective, & verb (a) noun each of the steps in a flight of stairs; (b) adjective resembling a stair-step; (c) verb intrans. resemble stair-steps; stair-tower: with a flight of stairs in it; stairway (a) a staircase; (b) Physical Geography a series of abrupt changes of level in the floor of a glaciated valley; stairwell the shaft containing a flight of stairs.
staired adjective (rare) (a) arranged like stairs; (b) supplied with stairs: M17.
stairless adjective (rare) having no stairs M19.
stairy adjective (long obsolete exc. dial.) ascending like a flight of stairs, steep L16.