steady n, a also stiddy, studdy. Cp OED ~ sb 1 'something which is steady' (Nfld: 1792), DC Nfld (1792-) for sense 1.
1 A stretch of still water in a brook or river; pool; STILL.
[1783] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 16 We there landed and ... walked up by the side of [a strong, rattling brook]. We soon found some fresh cut sticks in the water, three or four small ponds, or steadies ... and two old houses. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xv Steady in a river. A part where the bed widens, inclining to a pond, and there is no perceptible stream. 1843 JUKES 47 A succession of 'steadies,' with occasional rapids, may be met with for twelve miles. 1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 29 There are two long smooth reaches on the river above, called 'Steadies.' The first of these is about 3 miles from our camp, but between the latter and the steady the river is very rugged and broken by falls, chutes and rapids. 1877 Royal Geog Soc xlvii, 281 A succession of rapids and steadies took us up to Rosetta Island, a pretty fork in the river. 1879 HARVEY 20 At times we come to what the men called a 'stiddy' or 'study' —a long stretch of deep still water which seemed almost like a little lake. These 'stiddies' afford the men a welcome breathing time, but they are 'like angels visits—short and far between.' 1902 Christmas Bells 14 A small stream ... forming a pretty little cascade, ending in a long narrow pool or steady, bordered on the one side by an overhanging bank of alder bushes, and on the other, by a sandy beach, over the point of which the water was slowly oozing into and forming the first pool of the creek. 1923 GRENFELL 225 Hauling two canvas boats, they were able to make use of not a few still unfrozen 'steadies' in the big river along whose banks they often kept for miles at a time, and up some of which they could still tow their packs in the boats, although the ponds, as our folks still call lakes, were frozen hard. 1972 MURRAY 113-14 And for the children of Elliston during the period 1900-1950, the roadside, the 'drungs' (narrow lanes between gardens), under the flakes, the brooks and 'steadies' (where a brook widens out and deepens), the cliffs, and the beach, were the playgrounds.
2 A small fresh-water pond; cp GULLY1.
1892 Christmas Review 25 The moss-carpeted, flower-bespangled glen; the lazy, stately, sweeping river; the calm, clear, mirror-like mountain 'studdy' the bustling, scurrying, rippling, trout-haunted brooklet... 1937 DEVINE 49 ~ A small lake or pond. P 229-67 A steady is a very small pond that joins a larger pond. 1973 BARBOUR 55 If there were any ice formed on the 'steady' of Gotts Cove Pond, father would suggest that we take our skates, and walk the mile and a half to the 'steady.'
3 Comb steady water: see sense 1 above; freq in names of rivers and streams.
1843 JUKES 47 Above this [rapid] is 'steady water,' for six miles, navigable for a punt. 1848 Journ of Assembly 263 Steady Water River. 1888 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 11 Here we found some pretty tough rapids ... till we reached a point where a short portage has to be made [until] we reached the steady water above. 1944 LAWTON & DEVINE 33 A forest fire broke out on Plate Cove Road—west of the settlement—and fanned by a smart breeze, soon swept down towards 'Steady Water' valley about half a mile west of the harbor.
