Meaning & use
steerage
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Meanings
noununcountableold-fashioned
The lowest-priced section of a passenger ship, where travelers had little space or comfort, common on old ocean crossings.
Grammar: Used without an or the in most contexts: they traveled in steerage, not a steerage.
Patterns
- travel in steerage
- a steerage passenger
My great-grandparents crossed the Atlantic in steerage, sharing a crowded room with dozens of strangers.
Tickets for steerage cost a fraction of what the first-class cabins did.
The novel opens with a scene in steerage, where families slept on narrow bunks.
noununcountablearchaictechnical
The act or method of guiding a ship or vehicle; the way a craft responds to its controls.
Grammar: Rare today; it names the control of direction, as in the boat had poor steerage at low speed.
Patterns
- steerage way
The sailors worried that the damaged rudder would leave them without proper steerage.
A ship needs a minimum speed to keep steerage in a strong current.
Common combinations
- travel in steerage
- Most immigrants of that era could afford only to travel in steerage.
- steerage class
- Steerage class had no private cabins and little fresh air.
- steerage passenger
- Each steerage passenger received a metal plate and a blanket.
- steerage ticket
- She saved for two years to buy a steerage ticket to New York.
- steerage deck
- The steerage deck was damp and noisy at night.
Synonyms and how they differ
- third class
- Third class is the general, neutral term for the cheapest tier, while steerage suggests the harsh, crowded conditions of the old ocean liners.
- economy
- Economy is the modern word for the cheap tier on planes or ships and carries no sense of hardship, unlike steerage.
- lower deck
- Lower deck describes only the location on the ship, not the ticket class or the passengers' status.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: steerage or stearage?
steerage vs stearage
This is a common misspelling; the correct spelling is steerage, with double e like steer.
Practice
Which sentence uses steerage in its traditional meaning?
Choose one answer.
Steerage means the cheapest passenger accommodation on a ship. The other sentences wrongly treat it as a ship part, a leadership role or a dining room.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “steerage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.