Stair sb.

Forms: 1 stǽʓer, 2–5 steire, 4–5 steier (5 steiar), 4 steyʓere, 4–6 (9 dial.) steyre, 5–6 steyr, 4–6 steyer, 6 steare, stare, (7 starre), 6–7 steer(e, 4–8 stayer (6 staigher, staygher, 7 stayor), 4–7 stayre, 5–7 stayr, 6 staier, 5–7 staire, 6– stair. [OE. stǽʓer fem.:—OTeut. type *staiʓrī, f. *staiʓ-: *stĭʓ- to climb: see STY v. Cf. (M)Du. steiger (WFlem. steeger staircase), LG. steiger, steger masc., scaffolding, landing-stage.]

  1.  An ascending series or ‘flight’ of steps leading from one level to another, esp. from one floor to another in a house; a staircase.

  Still the ordinary use in Scotland, where ‘up the stair,’ ‘down the stair’ are the usual equivalents for upstairs, downstairs, and ‘(to go up) six stairs’ means what in England would be expressed by ‘six flights of stairs.’ (The whole series of steps between two successive floors counts, however, as a single ‘stair,’ even when it consists of two or more ‘flights’ or portions separated by a landing.) In England the sing. in this sense is now very rare, exc. in phr. on the stair, which is itself slightly archaic.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 126/9. Ascensorium, stæʓer. Ibid. (c. 1000), Saints’ Lives (Skeat), v. 438. Sebastianus … astah þa up to þære stæʓre þe stod wiþ ðæs caseres botl. Ibid., xviii. 232. He feoll of anre stæʓre, and forþy, ʓelæʓ.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 165. Þis holie maiden … þo hie was þreo ȝier heold, [steȝh] biforen þe temple on þe steire of fiftene stoples … wiðute mannes helpe.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, II. 813. Adoun þe steyre a-noon right þo she wente.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 115. [Tarquinius] þrewe hym doun of a staire [L. per gradus].

1427.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 66. For a mason & his man a day to make a stayer with iij stappes, xij d ob.

1449.  in Cal. Proc. Chanc. Eliz. (1830), II. Pref. 54. To the seid hous shullen be ij covenable steiers, þe on ledyng up from the ground in to þe furst flore, and that other [etc.].

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, VI. 248. The scherand suerd glaid til his coler bayne, Out our the stayr amang thaim is he gayne.

a. 1490.  Botoner, Itin. (1778), 176. A hygh grese called a steyr of XXXII steppys.

a. 1500.  Chaucer’s Dreme, 1311. I … walkt … Til I a winding staire found.

1503.  Hawes, Examp. Virt., VII. cl. Than hardynes and fortune went down the stayre.

1551.  Ascham, Lett., 23 Feb., Wks. 1865, I. II. 280. The houses be eight or nine stairs high, that a wonderful number of people may look out of windows.

1597.  Drayton, Heroic. Epist., Q. Isab. to Mortimer, 39. Forth from my Pallace by a secret staire, I steale to Thames.

1632.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 480. The stayer of [the] little gate, and the stayer on the north syde of the greate gate.

1730.  A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 290. A Stair of 20 Steps.

1755.  Johnson, s.v., Stair was anciently used for the whole order of steps; but stair now, if it be used at all, signifies, as in Milton, only one flight of steps.

1774.  Smollett, Humph. Cl., 1 July. There were two stairs in the house.

1781.  J. Moore, View Soc. Italy (1790), I. v. 53. The principal entrance is by a spacious stair called the Giant’s stair.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 441. A stair contained within a circular or elliptical wall is called a winding stair.

1831.  Scott, Cast. Dang., xvii. At length she became sensible that he descended by the regular steps of a stair.

1832.  Macgillivray, Trav. Humboldt, xxiv. 372. A great stair of 57 steps conducts to the truncated summit.

1849.  M. Arnold, Sick King Bokhara, 220. While I speak, O King, I hear the bearers on the stair.

1859.  Tennyson, Marr. Geraint, 320. High above a piece of turret stair … wound.

1907.  Verney Mem., I. 3. A concealed door leading to a small private stair.

  † b.  Vaguely used for: Something on which one ascends. Obs.

13[?].  Disput. Mary & the Cross, 77, in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., 614. Cros! he stikeþ nou on þi steir, Naked aȝeyn þe wylde wynde.

  † c.  A ladder. Obs.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 1438. Sum stepis vp on sties to þe stone wallis, On ilka staffe of a staire stike wald a cluster.

1567–9.  Jewel, Def. Apol., IV. vii. § 3 (1611), 376. Cum Papa per Scalam ascendit, &c. When the Pope taketh his staires to mount on Horsebacke.

  d.  fig. A means of ascending in rank, power, moral excellence, etc.

1570–6.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 422. Now hath he climbed the seconde steppe of this staire to the crowne.

1621.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Superbiæ Flagellum, D 6. Humility is a most heauenly gift, The Stayre that doth (to Glory) men vp lift.

1627.  E. F., Hist. Edw. II. (1680), 9. Caring not what succeeds, so he may make it the Stair of his Preferment.

1677.  Gilpin, Demonol. (1867), 397. Pride was the stair by which he knew they must ascend to it.

  † e.  An ascending series, scale. Obs.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 33. 73. There is in this Universe a Staire, or manifest Scale of creatures, rising not disorderly … but with a comely method and proportion.

  2.  One of a succession of steps leading from one floor of a building to another.

  Occurring earliest in figurative uses: see d.

1530.  Palsgr., 275/1. Stayre or grece, degré.

1555.  Eden, Decades W. Ind., III. XI. 150. To the fyrste porches of their houses … they ascend by ten or twelue steares.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 145. I ascended the same by two hundred and forty staires of marble.

1624.  Wotton, Archit., I. 57. That the breadth of euery single Step or Staire bee neuer lesse then one foote.

1846.  Dickens, Pict. Italy, Rome, 226. This man touched every stair with his forehead.

1854.  trans. Hettner’s Athens, 8. The roof [of the Propylæa] is in ruins,… the stairs are scattered about in isolated fragments.

  † b.  A step of a ladder. Obs. rare.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., C. 513. Wymmen vnwytte þat … Bitwene þe stele and þe stayre disserne noȝt cunen.

  † c.  Applied to a step cut in rock, to one of the successive levels in the ascent of a pyramid, etc.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 330. They fonde a rooche entaillid and cutte in to steyers or grees … hewyd out with chyselles.

1584.  B. R., trans. Herodotus, II. 104. They deuised certayne engines … to heaue vp stones from the grounde to the fyrst stayre.

1600.  J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, V. 240. They descend by certaine staires hewen out of the rocke.

  † d.  fig. A step or degree in a (metaphorical) ascent or in a scale of dignity. Obs.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 284. Þolemodnesse … haueð þreo steiren—heie, & herre, & alre heixt, & nexst þe heie heouene.

1549.  Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 67. The thyrd stayer is thys. How shal they beleue in hym of whom they neuer heard?

1628.  Earle, Microcosm., Child. The elder he growes, hee is a stayer lower from God.

1640.  Fuller, Joseph’s Coat (1 Cor. xi. 21), 27. So Summa hilaritas, is Ima ebrietas, the highest staire of mirth, is the lowest step of drunkennesse.

  † e.  A high position. Obs.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 23. My dearest Lord fell from high honours staire Into the hands of his accursed fone.

1627.  May, Lucan, V. 441. And … yields at the peoples prayer To be dictator, honour’s highest staire.

  † f.  A degree of a circle. Obs.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Compl. Mars, 129. He passeth but a steyre in dayes two.

  3.  collective plural (of sense 2). = sense 1. Also, in generalized sense, the steps of staircases. (In the latter use, the plural of sense 2 coincides in application with that of sense 1, and in many examples it is difficult to determine which of the two was intended by the writer.)

  Pair, flight of stairs: see PAIR sb.¹ 6 b, FLIGHT sb.¹ 7. Back stairs: see BACKSTAIRS. Above, below stairs: see the preps. Down, up stairs: see DOWNSTAIRS, UPSTAIRS.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxv. (1495), 710. Thina ben certen trees … and therof Salomon made steyers and grece [Vulg. gradus 2 Chron. ix. 11] and postys [Vulg. fulcra 3 Kings x. 11] in the house of our lorde.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Blanchardyn, xlvii. 180. [They] brought her doun the stayers of the paleys.

1556.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 247. The … Coroners wer not thrust downe the stayers.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Conijcio, Sub scalas tabernæ librariæ se conijcere, to hyde him selfe vnder the stayers.

1577–82.  Breton, Flourish upon Fancie (Grosart), 21/1. Why didst thou throw him downe the Steares in such a sorte?

1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, IV. § 15. 395. The whole garret … and top of staires were as full as could be.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 313. Not able to rest for ratlings and jinglings, both upon the stairs and in the Chamber.

1711.  Hearne, Collect. (O. H. S.), III. 237. At the bottom of the Stayers.

1711.  W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 65. In lieu of such Stairs most Ships … have only Ladders.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 126. The first Figure is the great Stairs in the Garden … at S. Cloud.

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 44. (Address) The secretary look’d towards the stairs, as if he was about to leave me.

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., ix. III. 154. At the foot of the stairs, the company was joined by Mr. Rodney.

1839.  trans. Lamartine’s Trav. East, 116/1. Not far from the entrance of the temple, we found large openings and subterranean stairs which led us into lower constructions.

  transf.  1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 510. The Stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending.

  † b.  construed as sing. A flight of steps, a staircase. Obs.

1536.  MS. Rawl. D. 780, lf. 62. Makyng of a new stayers for the Colehouse.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Gradus,… a griese or steppe: a stayres.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 23. The composing of a fit and easy Staires being a Masterpiece.

1697.  Evelyn, Architects & Archit., Misc. Wks. (1825), 378. The perpendicular post of a winding staires.

1776.  S. J. Pratt, Pupil of Pleas., II. 242. It is a good way to any bed-chamber, and the stairs is steep.

1830.  G. P. R. James, Darnley, xxvi. He led the way up a little narrow stairs.

  c.  fig. and in fig. context; esp. applied to the means by which a person rises in rank or power. Now rare or Obs.

1576.  Gascoigne, Steele Gl., 16. Which … make my backe, a ladder for their feete, By slaundrous steppes and stayres of tickle talke, To clyme the throne, wherin my selfe should sitte.

1600.  Heywood, If you know not me (1605), A 3 b. The suffolke men my Lord, was to the Queene The very stayres, by which she did ascend.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 397. Tyrants very often hew downe the staires and steps whereby they ascended.

1631.  R. Bolton, Comf. Affl. Consc., xiv. (1635), 299. In a word to climbe up more merrily those staires of joy which are prest upon us by the holy Prophet.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. iii. 249. By the stairs of a Parsonage or two he climbed up at last into the notice of Fox, Bishop of Winchester.

1648.  J. Beaumont, Psyche, VIII. cxxxvii. By Virtue’s daily Progress they shall build Up to the gate of Bliss their mystick stayers.

  † d.  Dutch stairs: app. a light winding staircase. Obs.

1649.  in Archæologia, X. 411. A roome within the turret of the west stayres, having a payre of round Dutch stayres, arising into the very midle of it.

1701.  Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, II. i. My bones ache this morning as if I had lain all night on a pair of Dutch stairs.

  † e.  Applied to the outside steps leading to the door of a building. Obs.

c. 1481.  Caxton, Dialogues, 14/32. So goo to the halle Whiche is in the market; So goo vpon the steyres [Fr. sy montes les degretz]; There shall ye find the clothes.

1548.  Udall, Erasm. Par. Acts xxi. 31–6. As Paule came to the stayghers of the castell. Ibid. The multitude … folowed, euen to the veray staighers of the castell.

  4.  pl. (rarely † sing.). a. A landing-stage, esp. on the Thames in and near London.

1517.  in Archæologia, XLVII. 312. For makyng of an upright steyer of assheler from the Themys as highe as the grounde afore the wacchehouse.

1555–6.  in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Mary (1914), 202. The blacke fryers stayre.

1598.  Drayton, Heroic. Epist., El. Cobham to Duke Humph., 54. When my Barge was launched from the stayre.

1643.  Baker, Chron., Hen. III., 125. He commanded to be set ashore at the next Staires.

1687.  Lovell, Thevenot’s Trav., I. 20. This Town hath two and twenty Gates,… five on the streight of the Propontis, having all their landing Places and Stairs.

1698–9.  Act 11 Will. III., c. 21 § 4. The said Rulers … shall … appoint the Watermen … Stairs and Places of plying … betweene Gravesend and Windsor.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., II. ii. 71. A vessel is moored at a distance from the stairs.

1904.  A. Griffiths, 50 Yrs. Publ. Serv., xiv. 205. Just opposite, on the riverside, were the Millbank stairs.

  b.  A flight of stone steps, or a steep lane or alley with steps at intervals, forming a passage from one street to another at a different level.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xv. 129 b. You doe discend by a faire stare, about 3. quarters of a myle.

1649.  W. G., Surv. Newcastle, 20. Neer this Street is two wayes which goes down into the Close, the long Staires and Tudhill Staires.

  5.  attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. as stair-arch, -baluster, -carpet, -carpeting, -door, -newel, -rail, -top, etc.; stair-like adj.; stair-wise adv.; stair-builder, -building, -climbing: (Rarely stairs-.)

1883.  Good Words, July, 422/1. Marvellous ‘bits’ of broken *stair-arches.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stair-baluster manufacturer.

1859.  Easterbrook & Monckton (title), American *Stair Builder.

1892.  Nation (N. Y.), 11 Aug., 99/2. Two stairbuilders from Boston.

1900.  W. & A. Mowat (title), A Treatise on *Stairbuilding and Handrailing.

1834.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho., ii. Mending a piece of *stair-carpet off the first landing.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4237. Twilled *stairs carpeting.

1874.  H. H. Cole, Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus., 249. Piece of stair-carpeting.

1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 893. All *stair-climbing being strictly forbidden.

1891.  Meredith, One of our Conq., xxv. A slam of the kitchen *stair-door restored her.

1896.  A. Morrison, Child Jago, i. 9. [He] climbed and reckoned his way up the first *stair-flight.

1848.  Rickman, Styles Archit., 154. Windows in staircases, or *stair-lights, are also of a distinct character in all styles.

1863–5.  J. Thomson, Sunday at Hampstead, vii. Broad terrace-gardens *stairlike sank away.

1876.  T. Hardy, Ethelberta, xx. She leant against the *stair-newel.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvi. The narrow *stair passage.

1846.  Dickens, Cricket on Hearth, i. Deal doors, dressers, *stair-rails, bedposts.

1802.  G. Colman, Br. Grins, Elder Bro. (1819), 125. Being much nearer the *stair top.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 50 b. The places, where open fightes wer exhibited, wer made circlewise round about with settles or benches of marble, *staier wise one aboue an other.

1871.  W. Kay, Psalms, 403. The rhythmical structure of these Psalms [cxx. to cxxxiv.] (in which one line is built up upon another stair-wise).

  b.  Special comb.: stair-beak, a Brazilian bird of the genus Xenops; stair-cloth, a fabric for covering stairs; stair-maid, a maid-servant employed about the staircase in an hotel; stair-pit Mining (see quot. 1883); stair-rod (see quot. 1858); † stairs-shell ? = staircase-shell; † stair-shide, ? a side-piece for a stair-case; stair-step sb., one of the steps in a flight of stairs, also attrib. in stair-step curve; stair-step v., to furnish with a range of steps; stair-tower, a stair-turret; stair-tree, † (a) the sloping timber on or in which the ends of the steps of a wooden staircase are fixed; (b) (see quot. 1688); (c) a tree with steps in it to serve as a staircase; stair-turret, a turret with a staircase in it; stair-wire, a slender stair-rod of metal; stair-work, work made or done on or in connection with stairs. See also STAIRCASE, STAIR-FOOT, STAIR-HEAD, STAIRWAY.

1869–73.  T. R. Jones, Cassell’s Bk. Birds, III. 19. The *Stair-beaks (Xenops) are a group of Brazilian birds.

1771.  Mrs. Haywood, New Present, 254. If hair *stair-cloths are used.

1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4247, Floor-cloths, table-covering, and stair-cloths.

1895.  Daily News, 13 Feb., 10/7. Basementmaid or *Stairmaid … in hotel or business house.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, *Stairpit, a shallow shaft or staple in a mine fitted with a ladder or steps.

1887.  P. M’Neill, Blawearie, 95. We descended a stair-pit and breathed the peculiar air of the mines.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stair-rods, metal rods, usually of brass, fixed in eyes, to secure and keep a stair-carpet smooth in the bend of each step.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 298/2. Stair rods are of solid iron, plated.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. 10. The *Stairs shell.

1477–9.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 85. For ij pecis for *Steir shides, vj d.

1833.  Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1089. Soles and lintels, *stair-steps, crow-steps.

1904.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., 10 Sept., 568/1. The neutralization, instead of the stair-step curve, as used by Ehrlich in his spectrum, could be represented by a very regular curve.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. xi. Then our huge pyramidal Fatherland’s-Altar, Autel de la Patrie, in the centre, also to be raised and *stair-stepped.

1886.  Stevenson, Kidnapped, iv. 32. The key of the *stair-tower at the far end of the house.

1374.  in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 238. Ac etiam steires et *steyretres.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 340/2. The Stair Tree is the Post on which the Wheel [of the windmill] turns.

1848.  trans. Hoffmeister’s Trav. Ceylon, etc. xi. 437. The houses rest on basements of masonry, and the ascent to the low door-way is by means of a stair-tree.

1854.  Petit, Archit. Stud. France, 73. The western piers are carried up and form *stair-turrets.

1834.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho., i. The very *stair-wires made your eyes wink, they were so glittering.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., III. iii. 75. This [child] has beene some *staire-worke, some Trunke-worke, some behinde-doore-worke.

1903.  Daily Mail, 11 Sept., 2/7. Many wives stay indoors more than they would through being tired by stair work.