different between lasting vs steady

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?læst??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l??st??/
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): /?le?st??/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /?last??/
• Rhymes: -??st??, -æst??
• Hyphenation: last?ing

Adjective

lasting (comparative more lasting, superlative most lasting)

1. Persisting for an extended period of time.

   Synonyms: abiding, durable; see also Thesaurus:lasting

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Canto 5, p. 249,^[1]

     […] hasty wroth, and heedlesse hazardry

     Doe breede repentaunce late, and lasting infamy.

   • 1706, Susanna Centlivre, Love at a Venture, London: John Chantry, Act V, p. 63,^[2]

     Look ye, Marriage is a lasting thing—if it were for six Months only, I might venture upon thee—but for all days of my Life—mercy upon me […]

   • 1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 11,^[3]

     I knew that nought was lasting, but now even

     Change grows too changeable, without being new:

   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 34, p. 311,^[4]

     Then his son bought a carven coffin hewn from a great log of fragrant wood which is used to bury the dead in and for nothing else because that wood is as lasting as iron, and more lasting than human bones, and Wang Lung was comforted.
2. (obsolete) Persisting forever.

   Synonyms: eternal, everlasting; see also Thesaurus:eternal

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act 5, Scene 7,^[6]

     I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,

     Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,

     And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings

     His soul and body to their lasting rest.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Nath. Ponder, p. 24,^[7]

     Things that are first must give place, but things that are last, are lasting.

Derived terms

• lastingly
• lastingness

Translations

Verb

lasting

1. present participle of last

Noun

lasting (plural lastings)

1. (obsolete) The action or state of persisting; the time during which something or someone persists.

   Synonyms: continuance, duration, endurance

   • 1598, I. D. (possibly John Dee) (translator), Aristotles Politiques, or Discourses of Gouernment, London: Adam Islip, Chapter 12, p. 334,^[8]

     But all things that haue beginning, must come to an end, and whatsoeuer groweth, must likewise deminish, being subiect to corruption and change, according to the time appointed vnto it by the course of Nature, as is seene by experience in plants, and in wights, which haue their ages and lastings certaine and determined.

   • 1651, John Donne, Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, London: Richard Marriot, dedicatory epistle,^[9]

     […] it may be some kinde of Prophecy, of the continuance, and lasting of these Letters, that having been scattered, more then Sibyls leaves, I cannot say into parts, but corners of the World, they have recollected and united themselves […]

   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, Book 2, Chapter 10, § 4, p. 65,^[10]

     But concerning the several degrees of lasting, wherewith Ideas are imprinted on the Memory, we may observe […]

2. A durable woollen material formerly used for women's shoes.

   Synonym: everlasting

3. The act or process of shaping footwear on a last.

Anagrams

• Gatlins, salting, slating, staling

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From laste +? -ing

Noun

lasting f or m (definite singular lastinga or lastingen, indefinite plural lastinger, definite plural lastingene)

1. loading (av / of)

Antonyms

• lossing

References

• “laste_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From laste +? -ing

Noun

lasting f (definite singular lastinga, indefinite plural lastingar, definite plural lastingane)

1. loading (av / of)

Antonyms

• lossing

References

• “lasting” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

English

Alternative forms

• steddy, stedy

Etymology

From Middle English stede, stedi, stidi?, from Old English stæþþi?, from stæþ (“stead, bank”); equivalent to stathe +? -y or stead +? -y. Cognate with West Frisian stadich (“slow”), Danish stedig, stadig, steeg, Swedish stadig, Icelandic stöðugur, Middle Dutch stedigh, German stätig, stetig.

Pronunciation

• enPR: st?d?i, IPA^(key): /?st?di/

Adjective

steady (comparative steadier, superlative steadiest)

1. Firm in standing or position; not tottering or shaking; fixed; firm.

   • Their feet steady, their hands diligent, their eyes watchful, and their hearts resolute.

   • Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile?; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

2. Constant in feeling, purpose, or pursuit; not fickle, changeable, or wavering; not easily moved or persuaded to alter a purpose; resolute.
   • 2003, Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices: Inserts Only (page 10)

     During programmed changes, no steady green signal indication or flashing yellow signal indication shall be terminated and immediately followed by a steady red or flashing red signal indication without first displaying the steady yellow signal […]

3. Smooth and not bumpy or with obstructions.

4. Regular and even.

5. Slow.

Synonyms

• (firm): robust, solid, untottering
• (constant in purpose or action): dogged, staunch, unyielding; see also Thesaurus:obstinate
• (smooth, not bumpy): fluid
• (regular and even): constant, uniform, unvarying; see also Thesaurus:steady
• (slow): glacial, ponderous, stately; see also Thesaurus:slow

Antonyms

• (regular and even): unsteady; see also Thesaurus:unsteady

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

steady (third-person singular simple present steadies, present participle steadying, simple past and past participle steadied)

1. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To stabilize; to prevent from shaking.

   I took a drink to steady my nerves.

2. (intransitive) To become stable.
   • 2010, Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan

     The ship steadied in the air. Another spray of ballast came, heavier than the last.

Translations

Noun

steady (plural steadies)

1. A rest or support, as for the hand, a tool, or a piece of work.
2. (informal) A regular boyfriend or girlfriend.
   • 2002, Frederick E. Von Burg, Keep My White Sneakers, Kit Carson, iUniverse (?ISBN), page 13:

     “Dalton is my steady, now. If I break up with him, you're the first on the list.” “Thanks,” said Ted. “What a privilege to be second choice.”

3. (informal) A prostitute's regular customer.

Adverb

steady (not comparable)

1. (rowing, informal) To row with pressure at a low stroke-rating, often 18 strokes per minute.

Further reading

• steady in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• steady in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• steady at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• stayed