steepen

English

Etymology

From steep +‎ -en. Compare Old English stīepan (“to steepen”).

Verb

steepen (third-person singular simple present steepens, present participle steepening, simple past and past participle steepened)

1. (transitive) To make steeper.
   • 1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:

     With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.

2. (intransitive) To become steeper.
   • H. Miller

     As the way steepened […] I could detect in the hollow of the hill some traces of the old path.

   • 1960 March, H. P. White, “The Hawkhurst branch of the Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 170:

     Immediately beyond Churn Lane the climb begins at 1 in 78, steepening to 1 in 66. Speed soon falls and a number of heavy hop-pickers' specials have come to grief here.

Translations

to make steeper

• Bulgarian: правя по-стръмен (pravja po-strǎmen)
• German: steiler machen
• Irish: géaraigh
• Maori: mānihi

Anagrams

• ensteep