steeple, spire
(noun) a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top
Source: WordNet® 3.1
steeple (plural steeples)
A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
A spire.
(historical) A high headdress of the 14th century.
steeple (third-person singular simple present steeples, present participle steepling, simple past and past participle steepled)
(transitive) To form something into the shape of a steeple.
• Teeples, peelest
Source: Wiktionary
Stee"ple, n. Etym: [OE. stepel, AS. stepel, st; akin to E. steep, a.] (Arch.)
Definition: 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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
