steeple

views updated May 29 2018

stee·ple / ˈstēpəl/ • n. a church tower and spire. ∎  a spire on the top of a church tower or roof. ∎ archaic a tall tower of a church or other building.DERIVATIVES: stee·pled adj.

steeple

views updated May 17 2018

steeple steeplechase a horse race run on a racecourse having ditches and hedges as jumps, originally so called because a steeple marked the finishing point across country; the term is first recorded in the Sporting Magazine of April 1793 of a race of this kind run near Galloway.
steeple-house a building with a steeple, especially (as a derogatory term) in early Quaker usage; the English founder of the Society of Friends, George Fox (1624–91), uses the term in describing the effect on him of seeing the spires of Lichfield.

steeple

views updated May 23 2018

steeple tall tower OE.; spire XV. OE. stēpel, WS. *stiepel, stȳpel, f. *staup- STEEP1; see -LE1.
Hence steeplechase XVIII; orig. race having a church steeple in view as goal.

steeple

views updated May 18 2018

steeple. Collective term embracing a church-tower and spire together.