Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Stair
Stair
(stâr)
, Noun.
1.
One step of a series for ascending or descending to a different level; – commonly applied to those within a building.
2.
A series of steps, as for passing from one story of a house to another; – commonly used in the plural; but originally used in the singular only.
“I a winding stair found.” Chaucer’s Dream.
Below stairs
, in the basement or lower part of a house, where the servants are.
– Flight of stairs
, the stairs which make the whole ascent of a story.
– Pair of stairs
, a set or flight of stairs. – pair, in this phrase, having its old meaning of a set. See , 1.
– Pair
, Noun.
Run of stairs
(Arch.)
, a single set of stairs, or section of a stairway, from one platform to the next.
– Stair rod
, a rod, usually of metal, for holding a stair carpet to its place.
– Up stairs
. See
Upstairs
in the Vocabulary.Webster 1828 Edition
Stair
STAIR
,Noun.
1.
A step; a stone or a frame of boards or planks by which a person rises one step. A stair, to make the ascent easy, should not exceed six or seven inches in elevation. When the riser is eight, nine or ten inches in breadth, the ascent by stairs is laborious.2.
Stairs, in the plural, a series of steps by which persons ascend to a higher room in a building. [Stair, in this sense, is not in use.]Flight of stairs, may signify the stairs which make the whole ascent of a story; or in winding stairs, the phrase may signify the stairs from the floor to a turn, or from one turn to another.