Definition of "steeple"

steeple

/ˈstiːpəl/

noun
plural steeples
1. A tall tower, often on a church, normally topped with a spire.
  Quotations
  Above the session-room of the Council is the steeple, and in the steeple is the belfry, where exists, and has existed time out of mind, the pride and wonder of the village—the great clock of the borough of Vondervotteimittiss.
  1839, Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil in the Belfry‎
  So, the woman and the child had gone by, and gone on, and five had sounded from the steeples.
  1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Little Dorrit’s Party”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, book the first (Poverty), pages 126–127
2. A spire.
3. (historical) A high headdress of the 14th century.
verb
third-person singular simple present steeples, present participle steepling, simple past and past participle steepled
1. (transitive) To form something into the shape of a steeple.
  Quotations
  Mr. Ziegler is now angled forward with his elbows on his knees and his fingers steepled just under his nose.
  2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, page 341