flight of steps
3
3.0
- noun
- /flaɪt əv stɛps/
:
tramo de escaleras
- I turned down an alley to a flight of steps that led to the beach.
- a short flight of steps
- a steep flight of steps
- a long flight of steps
Examples
-
Gomez runs gleefully down a flight of steps.
Fiction book (1991) -
There was another flight of steps to his left.
Fiction book (1990) -
I led the way up the short flight of steps to the stage.
Fiction book (1994) -
Turns another corner and finds himself at the bottom of an incredibly long flight of steps.
Fiction book (1991) -
We had to climb a short flight of steps to reach the water's edge.
Fiction book (1999) -
By the canal there's a flight of steps.
-
The men hurried onto the shadowy flight of steps leading below.
Fiction book (2002) -
The coolies run down a curving flight of steps and deposit us at the door.
Blog text (22) -
What presented itself to us then was a new obstacle: a long flight of steps ascending to the entrance to the station.
Academic text (2002) -
I led the way up the short flight of steps to the stage.
Synonyms
100
1.0
A set of steps inside a building that people use to move between floors
72
2.8
A set of steps between one floor and the next
54
1.0
A set of steps that people use to go between floors in a building
41
1.6
A set of steps between two floors of a building
4
1.0
A set of steps that people use to go between floors
A set of stairs outside a building
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'flight' (a series of steps) combined with 'of' + 'steps' yields 'a set of stairs between two landings/floors'. This is a standard noun phrase pattern and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase flight of steps may come from the old idea of flight as a quick run or a bird's move, so imagine a row of steps you go up or down like a short flight. That's why flight of steps means 'a set of stairs between two floors or landings'.