twelve-stepv.
/ˈtwɛlvstɛp/, U.S. /ˈtwɛlvˌstɛp/ 1. intransitive. To undergo a twelve-step recovery programme, esp. through Alcoholics Anonymous. Also (occasionally): to encourage others to undergo such a programme (see quot. 1986).
ΚΠ
1986 Wittenburg Door Oct. 16 He had been twelve-stepping too often (i.e., the twelfth step of the A.A. program is bringing the message of recovery to practicing alcoholics).
1992 M Apr. 30/3 They're the perfect couple for the Bush-on-sedatives decade, regulated, medicated and 12-stepping to the millennium.
1997 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 26 Apr. 22 Morris says he's 12-stepping to shake off sex addiction.
2001 Santa Fe New Mexican (Nexis) 6 May (Real Estate Guide) 75 Heavens, that seems close to impossible, giving up anything without 12-stepping in a group, doesnt [sic] it?
2. transitive. To encourage (an addict) to undergo a twelve-step recovery programme; to attempt to persuade (a person) to give up an addiction. Also: to make (one's way) to a specified result through a twelve-step programme.
ΚΠ
1990 Re: ‘SF’ vs. ‘Sci-fi’ in rec.arts.sf-lovers (Usenet newsgroup) 16 Oct. All this stuff used to be vaguely interesting but it is now 12-stepping its way to boredom as fast as possible.
1991 D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland iii. 68 I have to be really careful not to come off like I'm twelve-stepping Joe or anything.
1995 New Yorker 20 Mar. 63/2 Everyone knew a drunk whom you could seek out and Twelve-Step in what used to be your favorite bar.
2002 Buffalo News (N.Y.) (Nexis) 12 Apr. g5 As an alcoholic in recovery, he is 12-stepping his way to an orderly life.
Derivatives
ˈtwelve-stepping n. and adj.
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1967 L. Meyer Off Sauce ix. 87 Twelfth-stepping is like garbage collecting; you really have to like your work or you couldn't stand it.]
1988 Los Angeles Times 8 Apr. ii. 6/4 The thorny troubles still exist—‘12-stepping’ is a day-by-day process.
1992 Re: Getting off Xanax in sci.med (Usenet newsgroup) 16 Dec. I originally based that opinion on conversations with a 12-stepping friend.
1995 New Yorker 20 Mar. 60/2 Edwards called this new engagement with other people ‘consent to being’. A.A. calls it ‘Twelve-Stepping’.
2002 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 17 May a18 An already recovering, 12-stepping, drug addict and alcoholic, and therefore susceptible to God, she stumbled into a black Methodist church in San Francisco.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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v.1986