How to Use half step in a Sentence

half step

noun
  • Our makeshift group increased our pace a half step quicker.
    Bryan Washington, The New Yorker, 4 June 2020
  • Dr Hildebrandt’s work is thus a half step along what is likely to be a very long road indeed.
    The Economist, 4 July 2018
  • Then, with about 130 meters to go, Britain’s Laura Muir also caught her on the outside, then pulled ahead by a half step.
    Richard A. Lovett, Outside Online, 18 Aug. 2021
  • At his worst, McSwain fouled too much, looked a half step off the pace of the game and couldn’t sustain production for long stretches.
    Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Woods nearly collapsed into the sand, but quickly used a golf club and a half step with his left leg to remain upright.
    Bill Pennington, New York Times, 21 May 2022
  • Bueckers lofts a pass over the top of the defense and drops it perfectly to her lead teammate, who had maybe a half step on the nearest defender.
    Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Michelle Dockery stars as Letty, a career criminal who’s only ever a half step ahead of the law.
    Margaret Lyons, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2017
  • After crunching the data, the team found that on average the voice pitch of new mothers dropped by more than 5 percent, or the equivalent of a half step on the piano.
    Julissa Treviño, Smithsonian, 1 June 2018
  • The Count’s first Contessa, perdono concludes by relaxing a half step downward from the tonic, G, to F-sharp.
    Matthew Aucoin, The Atlantic, 23 Nov. 2021
  • The world’s second largest meat company is moving a half step away from its age-old products by introducing a new line of ground beef that’s 50% ground beef and 50% plant-based.
    Chase Purdy, Quartz, 15 June 2019
  • Texas has taken a half step, extending postpartum coverage for six months after birth instead of a year.
    New York Times, 18 Aug. 2022
  • The hatch is sort of a half step between Honda’s subcompact HR-V crossover, which has more cargo capacity (about 24 to 56 cubic feet) and can hold slightly larger, wider and taller items.
    Mark Maynard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Your feet should be positioned approximately shoulder-width apart, with your non-firing foot a half step forward of your firing foot.
    Chris Mudgett, Outdoor Life, 1 July 2020
  • Jackpot Airlines is about a half step above a commuter airline, and its crew members are either shopworn or under-motivated.
    David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Dec. 2017
  • The elimination of the half step that produces a lesser bucket of revenue represents a two-fold win for publishers and songwriters in that previously the 80 cents per subscriber bucket always won out as the lesser pool.
    Ed Christman, Billboard, 29 Jan. 2018
  • This Thursday San Francisco took a half step — a later curfew, indoor events, larger gatherings — as vaccinations continued apace and health officials monitored viral trends.
    Ryan Kost, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'half step.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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