different between steer vs rule

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st??(?)/, enPR: st??(r)
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English steeren, steren, stiren, sturen, steoren, from Old English st?oran, st?eran, st?ran (“to steer; guide a vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurijan (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijan? (“to steer”).

The noun is from Middle English steere, stere, steor, from Old English st?or, st?r (“steering; guidance; direction”). Compare Dutch stuur, German Steuer, Icelandic stýri.

Verb

steer (third-person singular simple present steers, present participle steering, simple past and past participle steered)

1. (intransitive) To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).

   The boat steered towards the iceberg.

   I steered homeward.

2. (transitive) To guide the course of a vessel, vehicle, aircraft etc. (by means of a device such as a rudder, paddle, or steering wheel).

   I find it very difficult to steer a skateboard.

   When planning the boat trip, we had completely forgotten that we needed somebody to steer.
3. (intransitive) To be directed and governed; to take a direction, or course; to obey the helm.

   The boat steers easily.
4. (transitive) To direct a group of animals.
5. (transitive) To maneuver or manipulate a person or group into a place or course of action.

   Hume believes that principles of association steer the imagination of artists.

6. (transitive) To direct a conversation.
7. To conduct oneself; to take or pursue a course of action.

Translations

See also

• steering wheel
• torque steer

Noun

steer (plural steers)

1. (informal) A suggestion about a course of action.
2. (obsolete) A helmsman; a pilot.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Derived terms

• steerless

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English stere, steer, ster, steor, from Old English st?or (“a young bull or cow; steer”), from Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“bull; steer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)táwros (“wild bull; aurochs”). Cognate with Dutch stier, German Stier, Icelandic stjór, Latin taurus (“bull”), Greek ?????? (távros). Doublet of tur.

Noun

steer (plural steers)

2. The castrated male of cattle, especially one raised for beef production.
   • 1913, Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, chapter 2

     He counted the cattle over and over. It diverted him to speculate as to how much weight each of the steers would probably put on by spring.

Synonyms

• ox

Hypernyms

• cattle

Coordinate terms

• bull, calf, cow

Translations

Verb

steer (third-person singular simple present steers, present participle steering, simple past and past participle steered)

1. (transitive) To castrate (a male calf).

Translations

Anagrams

• Ester, Reset, ester, estre, re-est., reest, reset, retes, seter, stere, teers, teres, terse, trees

Scots

Etymology

From Old English styrian

Noun

steer

1. stir

Anagrams

• Ester, Reset, ester, estre, re-est., reest, reset, retes, seter, stere, terse, trees

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?u?l/, [?u??]
• Rhymes: -u?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, itself an early semi-learned borrowing from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from reg? (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”); see regent.

Noun

rule (countable and uncountable, plural rules)

1. A regulation, law, guideline.
   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, Of The Obligations of Christians to a Holy Life

     We profess to have embraced a religion which contains the most exact rules for the government of our lives.
2. A regulating principle.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, All's well that ends well, Act I, scene I

     There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature.

3. The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
4. A normal condition or state of affairs.

   My rule is to rise at six o'clock.

5. (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
6. (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton to this entry?)

7. (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.

   a rule for extracting the cube root

8. A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
   • a. 1716, Robert South, Sermons

     As we may observe in the Works of Art, a Judicious Artist will indeed use his Eye, but he will trust only to his Rule.

9. A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
10. (printing, dated) A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for printing lines, as between columns on the same page, or in tabular work.

Derived terms

Related terms

• regulate
• regent
• regular

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English rulen, borrowed from Old French riuler, from Latin regul?re (“to regulate, rule”), from regula (“a rule”); see regular and regulate.

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (transitive) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
2. (slang, intransitive) To excel.

3. (intransitive) To decide judicially.
4. (transitive) To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
   • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to some Considerations, the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation

     That's a ruled case with the school-men.

5. (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).

Synonyms

• (to excel): rock (also slang)

Antonyms

• (to excel): suck (vulgar slang)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Related to revel.

Noun

rule

1. (obsolete) Revelry.

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To revel.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ReLU, Ruel, lure

Spanish

Verb

rule

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of rular.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rular.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rular.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of rular.