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r; -- commonly used in the plural; but originally used in the singular only. "I a winding stair found." Chaucer's Dream. Below stairs, in the basement or lower part of a house, where the servants are. -- Flight of stairs, the stairs which make the whole ascent of a story. -- Pair of stairs, a set or flight of stairs.…

A flight of stairs with their supporting framework, casing, balusters, etc. To make a complete staircase is a curious piece of architecture. Sir H. Wotton. Staircase shell. (Zoöl.) (a) Any scalaria, or wentletrap. (b) Any species of Solarium, or perspective shell.

The head or top of a staircase.

A flight of stairs or steps; a staircase. "A rude and narrow stairway." Moore.

Stairs in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.

Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; as if finding access by the back stairs. A backstairs influence. Burke. Female caprice and backstairs influence. Trevelyan.

Down the stairs; to a lower floor. -- a.

Of or pertaining to the kitchen, or the servants' quarters; hence, subordinate; menial. [Obs.]

The basement or cellar.

Up the stairs; in or toward an upper story.

f slang in which every word is written or pronounced backwards; as, nam for man. -- Back stairs, stairs in the back part of a house; private stairs. Also used adjectively. See Back stairs, Backstairs, and Backstair, in the Vocabulary. -- Back step (Mil.), the retrograde movement of a man or body of men, without chang…

d by a rail, serving as an open parapet, as along the edge of a balcony, terrace, bridge, staircase, or the eaves of a building.

d by a rail, serving as an open parapet, as along the edge of a balcony, terrace, bridge, staircase, or the eaves of a building.

aving vertical sides, but with the sill not horizontal, as where it follows the rake of a staircase.

A notched board to which the treads and risers of the steps of wooden stairs are fastened.

An outer framework of timber, inclosing something within it; as the cage of a staircase. Gwilt.

A plane used for working the upper surface of staircase rails.

A staircase in a spiral form. En caracole ( Etym: [F.], spiral; -- said of a staircase.

Cockle hat, a hat ornamented with a cockleshell, the badge of a pilgrim. Shak. -- Cockle stairs, winding or spiral stairs.

nion way; a companion hatch. Companion hatch (Naut.), a wooden porch over the entrance or staircase of the cabin. -- Companion ladder (Naut.), the ladder by which officers ascend to, or descend from, the quarter-deck. Totten. -- Companion way (Naut.), a staircase leading to the cabin. -- Knights companions, in certa…