▪ I. steen, a. U.S. slang.
(stiːn)
Also 'steen.
[Aphetic form of sixteen.]
An indefinite, (fairly) large number of; ‘umpteen’.
| 1886 Tid-Bits IV. 37/2 And so I've lost a year of wooing, And more than 'steen years will repay. 1900 K. U. Clark in Independent 2573/2 Endless repetitions are not unfitly designated as occurring ‘steen’ times. 1915 S. Ford Torchy, Private Sec. xiii. 225 It's no trick at all to go into the average Rube village, 'steen miles from a railroad. 1934 S. Lewis Work of Art xxv. 338 ‘I've told you lots of times about building a really first-class inn,’ said Myron...‘Yes, sure, steen thousand times,’ said Effie. 1944 Kansas City Star 10 Dec. D8/7 If 'steen thousand women would give up their share. 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 65/2 Steen. One would judge this word to be abstracted from sixteen. It has, I think, been familiar to me for many, many years, often in hyperbolical combinations; e.g., ‘I have steen million things to do’. |
▪ II. steen, v.
(stiːn)
Forms: 1 stǽnan, 2 stænen, 3–5 stene, 3 steane, 5 steyn(e, 8–9 steen, stein, 9 stean, steyn(e.
[OE. stǽnan = OHG. (MHG., mod.G.) steinen, Goth. stainjan, f. OTeut. *staino-z stone n.
In certain northern dialects this and stone v. are formally coincident.]
† 1. trans. To stone (a person); to put to death by stoning. Obs.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 37 Ðu stænas [c 975 Rushw. stænest] hia ðaðe to ðe ᵹesendet sint. a 1225 Ancr. R. 122 Seint Stefne þet te stones þet me stenede him mide [etc.]. a 1225 Juliana 41 And ich hit am þet makede sein iuhan þe baptiste beon heafdes bicoruen & seinte stephene isteanet. 1340 Ayenb. 213 God..made ane man to stene to-uore al þe uolke uor þet he [etc.]. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 31 Þey schulde þrowe out stones þorow holes of þe walles, as it were for to stene the devel. c 1440 Gesta Rom. 178 Jerusalem! that sleist prophites, & steynist hem that bethe I-sent to the. c 1450 Mirk's Festial 28 Þay drowen hym out of þe cyte, forto stenen hym to dethe. |
2. To line (a well or other excavation) with stone, brick or other material. Also with up.
| 1723 Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 192 We..artificially steen'd the whole Depth [of the well] with circular Portland Stone. 1797 Ibid. LXXXVII. 325 The well was sunk and steined to the bottom. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §234 To dig a cesspool..and steen it with four-inch brick-work. 1838 Holloway Prov. Dict. s.v., To line a well with stones or bricks is to Stean it. 1839 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. II. 245/2 The excavation was..steined with 9 inch brickwork in cement. 1877 Fraser's Mag. XV. 422 The original plan of steyning the banks, or lining them with stones, must..be resorted to. 1886 W. Somerset Word-bk., Steen, to build up without mortar the circular wall of a well... ‘I've a-got good stones, I'll steen un up well’. 1891 Antiquary Nov. 208 The lower part of this was steined with oak boards. |
b. dial. (See quot.)
| 1886 W. Somerset Word-bk., Steen,..2. To put fresh metal on a road. |
Hence steened ppl. a.
| 1721 Mortimer Husb. (ed. 5) II. 283 He had several times seen at the pulling up of such old [ox] Stalls, some that have had a well steen'd Channel under the Planks, leading to a large steined Receptacle without the Stall. 1863 Archæol. Cantiana V. 15, I found another steined grave of Caen stone. |
▪ III. steen
obs. form of stean.