2. To walk; to go on foot; esp., to walk a little distance;
as, to step to one of the neighbors.
3. To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely.
Home the swain retreats, His flock before him
stepping to the fold. --Thomson.
4. Fig.: To move mentally; to go in imagination.
They are stepping almost three thousand years back
into the remotest antiquity. --Pope.
{To step aside}, to walk a little distance from the rest; to
retire from company.
{To step forth}, to move or come forth.
{To step} {in or into}.
(a) To walk or advance into a place or state, or to
advance suddenly in.
Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the
water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever
disease he had. --John v. 4.
(b) To enter for a short time; as, I just stepped into the
house.
(c) To obtain possession without trouble; to enter upon
easily or suddenly; as, to step into an estate.
{To step out}.
(a) (Mil.) To increase the length, but not the rapidity,
of the step, extending it to thirty-tree inches.
(b) To go out for a short distance or a short time.
{To step short} (Mil.), to diminish the length or rapidity of
the step according to the established rules.
{Stepped gear}, a cogwheel of which the teeth cross the face
in a series of steps.