step lively

English

Verb

step lively (third-person singular simple present steps lively, present participle stepping lively, simple past and past participle stepped lively)

1. (US, idiomatic, dated, usually in the imperative) To move quickly; to hurry along.
   • 1907 August 1, “The Sprit of Rush”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-01-30:

     Our London correspondent informs us that the "spirit of rush" possesses London. The motor omnibuses reach a speed rate of four miles an hour. The guards on the underground railway are beginning to exclaim "Step lively!" Old-fashioned, conservative Britons are indignant.

   • 1908, Percy Keese Fitzhugh, King Time: Or The Mystical Land of the Hours, a Fantasy, New York and Boston: H.M. Caldwell Company, page 197:

     "Step lively, please," said a jiffy who was sitting on the adjoining post. "Father Time permits no delays, you know; come, step lively!"

   • 1916, Hugh A. Moran, “The Oxford College and the American Fraternity”, in Delta Kappa Epsilon Quarterly, volume 34, number 1, page 64:

     The Oxford system of a wheel within a wheel has all the advantages of the small college and the great university. The student of even mediocre ability, if he have ambition and energy, can find himself and his place among the multiplex societies and clubs of the Oxford College, while even a hunchback, if he steps lively, can get on some sort of college athletic team.

   • 1941 March 1, Hugo Johanson, “Bed and Board”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-09-28:

     The making up of ninety beds in twelve hours requires (granting that you dote on bedmaking) no superhuman strength and endurance; but if, in addition, you are expected to clean thirty-six spittoons, three lavatories, a lobby, and a restaurant, it behooves you to step lively.

   • 2014, Michael Egley, Salagar the Grim: The Dagor's Axe, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 402:

     As I watched, the crew stepped lively, the capstan grasped by four men, the fore and aft anchors rapidly pulled and secured.

   • 2022 November 10, Larry Stone, “Seahawks take a page from 2018, embrace 'field trip' to Germany”, in The Seattle Times‎^[3], archived from the original on 23 November 2022:

     And yet there the Seahawks were Thursday afternoon, on one of the soccer fields of FC Bayern Munich's vast practice facility, stepping lively as the familiar music from their weekly "Techno Thursday" playlist blared.

References

• “step lively”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “step lively”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.