stepmeal

From Middle English *stepmele, *stapmele, from Old English stæpmǣlum (“step by step; gradually, by degrees”), equivalent to step +‎ -meal.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛpˌmiːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈstɛpˌmil/, [ˈstɛpˌmiəɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

stepmeal (not comparable)

1. (uncommon) One step at a time; step by step; gradually; by degrees.
   • 1852, “A Modern English Version of King Alfred's Blossom-Gatherings from Saint Augustine”, in The Whole Works of King Alfred the Great, volume II, Oxford, Cambridge:  […] J. F. Smith and Co. for The Alfred Committee, page 104:

     He who would see it with his mind's eye must begin by very little, and then by little and little climb nigher and nigher, and stepmeal, as if he were climbing on a ladder, and would be up on some sea'cliff; […]

   • 1967 July [1967 May 23], The Christian Science Monitor, “Athens Imitates Communism”, in Balkania‎^[1], volume I, number 3, United States: Balkania Publishing Company, page 32:

     One does not need to underline how, stepmeal (SIC), all this imitates Communist practice.
     This would be damaging enough. But the new rightist government has gone much further. It has laid strict control on the Greek Orthodox Church.

• pestemal