STAIR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Stair

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/stɛr/ Listen

noun

Stair n.

One step of a series for ascending or descending to a different level; commonly applied to those within a building.

A series of steps, as for passing from one story of a house to another; commonly used in the plural; but originally used in the singular only. "I a winding stair found."

Below stairs, in the basement or lower part of a house, where the servants are.

Flight of stairs, the stairs which make the whole ascent of a story.

Pair of stairs, a set or flight of stairs. pair, in this phrase, having its old meaning of a set. See Pair, n., 1.

Run of stairs (Arch.), a single set of stairs, or section of a stairway, from one platform to the next.

Stair rod, a rod, usually of metal, for holding a stair carpet to its place.

Up stairs. See Upstairs in the Vocabulary.

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Etymology of 'Stair'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stair" Quotes from Famous Books

... have rested. Blessed Paul began making a duck- house; she let him be; the duck-house fell down, and she had to set her hand to it. He was then to make a drinking-place for the pigs; she let him be again - he made a stair by which the pigs will probably escape this evening, and she was near weeping. Impossible to blame the indefatigable fellow; energy is too rare and goodwill too noble a thing to discourage; but it's trying when she wants a rest. ...

— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson

... said, "This is no time to trouble her. She is ill." "Let her decide," he answered, with a sneer. Before I found another word to say The maid tripped down again. I scarce believed My senses, when she beckoned him up the stair. Shaking from head to foot, I blocked the way. "Property!" Could the crux of mine and thine Bring widow and murderer into one small room? "Sir Lewis," I said, "she is ill. It is not right! She never would consent." He sneered again, "You are her doctor? Out of the ...

— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... empty passageway, and down the basement-stair. The thick cobwebs swept my face. I noted them with joy, for I thought they proved that the house had been deserted for some time, and so perhaps it might ...

— The Valley of Vision • Henry Van Dyke

... could give the alarm, a terrible catastrophe would occur. He realized this, and made the supreme effort of his life to avert it. But fate was against him. In his mad haste to leap down the stair-way to give warning, his foot slipped, and he fell headlong to the floor of the lower deck, his temple, coming in contact with the railing, rendering him unconscious. Heaven was merciful to him that he did not realize what took place ...

— Kidnapped at the Altar - or, The Romance of that Saucy Jessie Bain • Laura Jean Libbey

... of the engagement, and to invite him to Priesthope.' Really, Aunt Mary sticks at nothing. I warn you solemnly, father, this is only the thin end of the wedge. Unless you stand firm now, she'll want to choose our new stair carpet for us next. Really, I think at her age she might take a little holiday, and leave the Almighty ...

— Prisoners - Fast Bound In Misery And Iron • Mary Cholmondeley

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