> as lemmas

1473–4 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 15 The castyng and laying iiij^xx xv^c of new and olde Led to the steple.

1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Pyramis,..a stiple.

1551 W. Turner New Herball sig. N iij^v The tre..hath the figure of a steple, that is great beneth, and the hygher vp the smaller it is.

1578 J. Banister Hist. Man vii. f. 93 The figure of this [right] auricle is like a poynted steeple pillour or other buildyng, whose brodest part is the bottome.

1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum iii. xvii. 18 b Out of the eye commeth a small appearaunce, that is shapen as a steeple or a top.

1595 A. Duncan Appendix Etymologiae: Index in Latinae Grammaticae Pyramis, a steiple, or lyk building.

1607 T. Walkington Optick Glasse 41 His head was made like a broch steeple, sharpe.

1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 425 A mightie bigge and loftly towre, upon which stood a spire steeple covered with leade.

1766 J. Entick Surv. London in New Hist. London IV. 283 The steeple is a spire.., raised upon a solid..tower.

1782 W. Cowper tr. V. Bourne Jack Daw in W. Cowper Poems 337 Above the steeple shines a plate, That turns and turns, to indicate From what point blows the weather.

1872 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 233 With the Yankee, the meeting-house with its steeple—the word ‘spire’ is hardly ever heard in America—has found its way to every part of the Union.

1896 H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum p. xxvi There were battlements..at the top of the tower, and above rose the steeple.