steeple

See also: Steeple

English

A steeple.

Alternative forms

• steple (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English stepel, from Old English stīpel, stȳpel, stīepel (“tower, steeple”), from Proto-West Germanic *staupil, from Proto-Germanic *staupilaz (“that which is steep, tower, steeple”), equivalent to steep +‎ -le. Cognate with Old Norse stǫpull (“tower, steeple”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstiːpəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːpəl

Noun

steeple (plural steeples)

1. A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil in the Belfry‎^[1]:

     Above the session-room of the Council is the steeple, and in the steeple is the belfry, where exists, and has existed time out of mind, the pride and wonder of the village—the great clock of the borough of Vondervotteimittiss.

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Little Dorrit’s Party”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), pages 126–127:

     So, the woman and the child had gone by, and gone on, and five had sounded from the steeples.

2. A spire.
3. (historical) A high headdress of the 14th century.

Derived terms

• Ainderby Steeple
• rood-steeple
• Steeple Aston
• Steeple Bumpstead
• steeple cab
• steeplechase
• Steeple Claydon
• steeple engine
• steeple hat
• steeple keeper
• Steeple Langford
• steepleless
• Steeple Morden
• Sturton le Steeple

 

Translations

a tall tower, often on a church

• Basque: orratz
• Breton: kloc'hdi (br) m
• Catalan: campanar (ca) m
• Czech: špička věže, kostelní věž
• Dutch: kerktoren (nl) m
• Esperanto: preĝejturo
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kirkontorni, kellotapuli (fi)
• French: clocher (fr) m
• German: Kirchturm (de) m
• Hungarian: templomtorony (hu), torony (hu)
• Icelandic: kirkjuturn m
• Irish: spuaic f
• Italian: campanile (it) m
• Japanese: 尖塔 (ja) (せんとう, sentō)
• Maori: koeko
• Polish: dzwonnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: campanário (pt) m, torre sineira f
• Romanian: turlă (ro) f, clopotniță (ro) f
• Romansch: clutger m (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), clucher m (Puter, Vallader)
• Russian: колоко́льня (ru) f (kolokólʹnja)
• Serbo-Croatian: zvonik (sh) m, звоник m
• Spanish: campanario (es) m
• Swedish: kyrktorn (sv) n
• Ukrainian: дзвіни́ця (uk) f (dzvinýcja)

spire — see spire

Verb

steeple (third-person singular simple present steeples, present participle steepling, simple past and past participle steepled)

1. (transitive) To form something into the shape of a steeple.

   He steepled his fingers as he considered the question.

   • 2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 341:

     Mr. Ziegler is now angled forward with his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled just under his nose.

Derived terms

• steepled

Translations

to form into the shape of a steeple

Anagrams

• Teeples, peelest

French

Alternative forms

• stiple

Etymology

Borrowed from English steeple.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stipl/

Noun

steeple m (plural steeples)

1. steeplechase

Further reading

• “steeple”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.