step on, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

step on v.

also jump on

[the image of lit. squashing something and thus making it appear larger than it is]

(drugs) to adulterate narcotics for more profitable sales; thus stepped on adj.

1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 48: I ain’t never tried to step on this much heh-rawn in my life.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 76: Offered me a whole piece of unstepped-on China white. What could I say?
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 17: I gave my buyers a good deal. I never jumped on any of the gear I sold, I sold it pure, the same way I bought it.
1992		R. Price Clockers 8: All Strike had to do was not get greedy and step on Rodney’s bottles.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 82: Several dimes and quarters of stepped-on cocaine wrapped in individual packets of foil.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 118: The crate of pure cocaine came up from the docks and [...] by the time it reached Everton [...] it had been stepped on so many times as to render it indistinguishable from the usual poorer powders.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 368: You can step on it [i.e. an ounce of cocaine] two, three times, and it’ll still be good to go .
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 119: A pair of upper tier main dealers [...] are stepping on already cut dope he fronts to them.
2016		67 ‘Money Afi Make’ 🎵 I stepped on your block and I stepped on grub.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 234: The heroin was super-stepped-on.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 92: A story full of petty crime and stepped-on drugs.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

step on it (v.) (also step it up, step on her) [‘it’ being the accelerator]

(orig. US) to move or drive faster, esp. as an imper.; also sometimes in fig. use.

[c.1386		Chaucer Reeve’s Tale (1979) line 219: Oure hors is lorn, Alayn, for Goddes banes, Step on thy feet! Com of, man, al atanes!].
1921		Pop. Mechanics Sep. 348: With improved roads also came the temptation to ‘step on it’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 99: Bet you’ve often bent-an-ear to that spill-of-speech about hopping from five to f-i-f-t-y p-e-r by ‘stepping on her a bit!’.
1932		Townsville Daily Bull. 8 July 5/3: I snaps ‘Step on it Moses, an’ don’t keep a cash customer waiting’.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 242: Get him out to the Senator’s place as soon as you can. Step on it.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 38: I got a taxi and told the driver [...] to step on it.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 103: Can’t you step on it a bit more, Lofty?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 201: I turned into Parramatta Road and stepped on it.
1960		N. Fitzgerald Candles Are All Out 25: Your father and the judge must have stepped on it [...] I can’t see any sign of their lights.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 240: Come on, Murf. Step on it.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 375: Time to go, she was saying, step on it.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 209: He hopped into the cab, brandishing a handful of cash, telling the driver to step on it.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 584: ‘What’s their lead on us?’ ‘Maybe seventy miles, boss.’ ‘Then step it up a little.’.

step on one’s cock (v.)

see under cock n.³

step on one’s dick (v.)

see under dick n.¹

step on one’s motor (v.)

(US black) to boast, to make (empty) threats.

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 1: Little Joe, I have heard the wind blow before, my skull is padded to the fact that you’re stepping on your motor to hear your cut out roar.

step on one’s tongue (v.)

to say something one will regret.

1972

G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 72: You’re gonna step on your tongue, you don’t look out.

step on someone’s toes (v.) (also tread on someone’s corns, ...dick)

to annoy, to give offence to.

1868–9		Browning Ring and Book i 130: He could not turn about... Nor take a step... and fail to tread On some one’s toes [F&H].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 20/1: [W]e fail to see why the ‘spieler’ is the only one on whose corns the Cabbage Garden Daniel treads so roughly.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 4: While he had been valeting old Worplesdon she must have trodden on his toes in some way.
1945		J. Fishman Bullets for Two 7: Maybe he was trying to muscle back into the racket and stepped on someone’s toes.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 67: He stepped on the toes of the railroad brotherhoods.
1968		J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 111: You may find out that the John is high in society, so they don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 219: If you start stepping on Prince’s toes.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 38: What the fuck the man was after me. [...] Treading on his toes? Maybe so, only I never reckoned where it was I’d been treading on them.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 171: You been treading on someone’s toes in some drug war?
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 82: But like I said, I aint tryin' to step on no one's toes cuz that's not the type of bitch I am.
2013		T.F. Dunham ‘Soul Collection’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] But if we grew any more as a business, we’d start stepping on some dicks.

step on the gas (v.) (orig. US)

1. to accelerate a motorcar.

1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 307: I step on the gas and start to steer my bus back.
1928		V. Hurst Big Game 158: He stepped on the gas and the car shot forward into the rain.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 41: After which I step on the gas and we travel plenty.
1948		D. Dodge Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 8: James Whitney [...] stepped on the gas as the road straightened out in front of him.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 191: I step on the gas of our drag.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 93: They can step on the gas, you know.
1974		G. Radano Stories Cops Only Tell Each Other 42: ‘Pull up to that car,’ he tells me. I step on the gas and pull alongside.
2001		A. Schulman 23rd Precinct 206: He steps on the gas and they roll through the dark streets.

2. to go faster; esp. in imper.

1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 286: At present-day Western riding competitions one hears of horses [...] ‘steppin on the gas’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1934		C. Drew ‘Zarko Assassin’ in Bulletin 23 Oct. 49/2: I seen Lou give the Assassin the office to step on the gas, and he stepped on it.
1956		R. Ellison ‘A Coupla Scalped Indians’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 267: ‘Let’s step on the gas!’ The scene danced below us as we ran.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 101: We’ve lost a whole day already [...] We’ve got to step on the gas.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

3. to liven up, to take action.

1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 297: He’s awfully bright, but he never will step on the gas, after all the training I’ve given him.
1948		Sat. Rev. Lit. (US) 29 May 4/1: Many of the improvements in equipment and service stem from C. & O.’s persistent gadfly, Robert Young, but his competitors are beginning to step on the gas themselves [DA].