- stairs[plural] a set of steps built between two floors inside a building
- We had to carry the piano up three flights of stairs.
- He climbed the stairs to his bedroom.
- up/down the stairs The children ran up the stairs.
- on the stairs He remembered passing her on the stairs.
- at the bottom/top of the stairs
Extra ExamplesTopics Houses and homesa2, Buildingsa2- My kids sat on the basement stairs.
- Take the back stairs.
- The stairs creaked as I went down.
- We went up three flights of stairs.
- a closet under the stairs
- the stairs to the third floor
- He was standing at the foot of the stairs looking up.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- steep
- wide
- narrow
- …
- flight
- ascend
- climb
- mount
- …
- go down to something
- go up to something
- lead to something
- …
- rod
- rail
- gate
- …
- under the stairs
- stairs down to
- stairs to
- …
- the bottom of the stairs
- the foot of the stairs
- the head of the stairs
- …
- [countable] one of the steps in a set of stairs
- How many stairs are there up to the second floor?
Extra Examples- He sat waiting on the bottom stair.
- The third stair creaked as I stepped on it.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- top
- bottom
- on a/the stair
- (literary) (also staircase)[singular] a set of stairs inside a building including the banisters (= posts and bars that are fixed at the side)
- The house had a panelled hall and a fine oak stair.
Word OriginOld English stǣger, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch steiger ‘scaffolding’, from a base meaning ‘climb’.
Idioms
See stair in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybelow stairs
- (British English, old-fashioned) in the part of a house where the servants lived in the past
Check pronunciation:
stair