steady
pronunciation
How to pronounce steady in British English:
UK [ˈstedi]
How to pronounce steady in American English:
US [ˈstedi]
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- Noun:
- a person loved by another person
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- Verb:
- make steady
- support or hold steady and make steadfast, with or as if with a brace
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- Adjective:
- not subject to change or variation especially in behavior
- persistent in occurrence and unvarying in nature
- not liable to fluctuate or especially to fall
- securely in position; not shaky
- marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
- relating to a person who does something regularly
- not easily excited or upset
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- Adverb:
- in a steady manner
Word Origin
- steady
- steady: [16] Steady was derived from stead ‘place’, probably on the model of Middle Low German stēdig ‘stable’. This in turn went back to a prehistoric Germanic *stadigaz, a product of the same base as produced English stead. Its etymological meaning is ‘fixed in one place’.=> stead
- steady (adj.)
- 1520s, "firmly fixed in place or station" (replacing earlier steadfast), from stead + adjectival suffix -y (2), perhaps on model of Middle Dutch, Middle Low German stadig. Old English had stæððig "grave, serious," and stedig "barren," but neither seems to be the direct source of the modern word. Old Norse cognate stoðugr "steady, stable" was closer in sense. As an adverb from c. 1600. Originally of things; of persons or minds from c. 1600. Meaning "working at an even rate" is first recorded in 1540s. Steady progress is etymologically a contradiction in terms. Steady state first attested 1885; as a cosmological theory (propounded by Bondi, Gold, and Hoyle), it is attested from 1948. Related: Steadily.
- steady (v.)
- 1520s, transitive and intransitive, from steady (adj.). Related: Steadied; steadying.
- steady (n.)
- 1792, "a steady thing or place," from steady (adj.). From 1885 as "something that holds another object steady." Meaning "one's boyfriend or girlfriend" is from 1897; to go steady is 1905 in teenager slang.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Meat exports have remained relatively steady in wales .
- 2. He reports steady growth in the past four years .
- 3. Since then , reserve growth shows a steady decline .
- 4. Many of these are textbooks , for which demand is pretty steady .
- 5. Steady growth has allowed governments to expand the services they offer .