▪ I. ˈsteeplechase, n.
[f. steeple n.1 + chase.
Cf. to hunt the steeple, steeple-hunting, steeple n.1 2 c 7.]
1. A horse-race across country or on a made course with artificial fences, water-jumps, and other obstacles. Formerly, a race having a church steeple in view as goal, in which all intervening obstacles had to be cleared.
| 1793 Sporting Mag. Apr. 57/2 The Hon. Mr. O'Hea and Captain Magrath ran a Steeple-chace, near Galloway. 1803 W. Taplin Sporting Dict. & Repository II. 486 This kind of chase [sc. Wild-Goose chase]..was long since changed to a train scent, (that is, a drag across the country;) better known by the denomination of a steeple chase. 1818 ‘W. H. Scott’ Brit. Field Sports 433 A late Steeple Chase. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xvii, Tom Cinqbars, who was going to ride the steeplechase. 1884 A. E. T. Watson in Longman's Mag. Apr. 606 In these days steeples had something to do with steeple-chases. |
| attrib. 1839 Sporting Mag. Apr. 472 Men who make a profession of Steeple-chase riding. Ibid. 473 Ground..called in requisition to form part of the Steeple-chase course. 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 54 Caingey..was now hoisted on to the renowned steeple-chase horse again. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4694, Hunting saddles, steeple-chase saddle. 1897 Badminton Mag. IV. 393, I won the regimental steeplechase cup with her last April. |
| fig. c 1865 J. Wylde in Circ. Sci. I. 394/2 Expending considerable time in a chemical steeple-chase. 1898 16th Cent. Apr. 523 Evidently all that is the result of this steeplechase of colonial aggrandisement. |
2. transf. A foot-race across country or over a course furnished with hurdles, ditches, and other obstacles.
| 1864 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 12 Mar. 5/4 Oxford & Cambridge Athletic Sports... Steeple Chase, over about two miles of fair hunting country. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 58/1 (Athletics) Steeplechasing. For many years past no athletic sports programme has been considered quite complete without a steeplechase. |
3. A parlour game played on a board representing a steeplechase course, each player having a metal figure of a horse, the movements of which are regulated by the casting of dice and by the nature of the obstacles supposed to be encountered.
| 1892–3 T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Fall & Winter 67/1 Games..errand boy, steeplechase, yacht race [etc.]. 1895 Stores' Price List, Race, or Steeplechase Game. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 868/2 Steeplechase. |
▪ II. ˈsteeplechase, v.
[f. steeplechase n.]
intr. To ride or run in a steeplechase; to practise riding in steeplechases. Also transf. and fig. So ˈsteeplechasing vbl. n.
| 1816 in Racing & Steeple-chasing (Badm. Libr. 1900) 283 Steeple-chasing. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports ii. ii. ii. 379 Steeplechasing... This once fashionable amusement was brought into notice about 25 years ago, avowedly for [etc.]. 1866 Ballantyne Shifting Winds viii. (1881) 74 That is more arduous work than steeple-chasing! 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 233 Over fence after fence they steeplechased. 1887 H. Smart Cleverly won xi. 96 There's a good deal of uncertainty about steeplechasing. 1887 M. Shearman Athletics & Football 114 Steeplechasing is quite unknown at athletic meetings at the Universities. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 2 Nov. 3/3 He has steeplechased for twenty-nine years in England, Ireland, and India. 1905 Daily Chron. 16 Feb. 4/5, I..steeplechased over benches and iron bars, until I reached the best position in the Albert Hall. |