Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a thief who steals from buildings, e.g. offices, that have not been properly secured.

1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 128: A stair dancer is a chap who raids hotel bedrooms.
1958		Times 10 Feb. 4/5: ‘Stair dancer’ is [...] the name given by the police to the thief who walks in and out of City offices, looking for something to steal.
1961		(con. c.1950) R. Poole London E1 (2012) 15: The star-dancers who could go through hotel bedrooms with the speed and efficiency of a heavy dose of salts.
1977		‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon 235: Since he was a stair dancer, a walk-in thief, judges had been inclined to be lenient until the last occasion, when his offence had been said [...] to have been aggravated by his having broken a window to ‘effect an entrance’ [OED].
2003		‘Fights About Food Or The Power of Good Ritual’ Sermon at St Peter’s, Wellington 31 Aug. 🌐 Last year when a stair dancer visited my house, and when the police caught him a few hours later, I got invited to a family case conference as part of the process of sorting out what to do about the offender.

children ranged at equal intervals of age within their family; also attrib.

1925		C.R. Cooper Lions ’n Tigers 76: This was the district of ‘stair-steps’, of thin, narrow-shouldered women, trailed by processions of children, five and six in a line. [Ibid.] 77: Don’t need many ladders aroun’ this country... All they have t’do is line up the kids and walk on their heads. Ever see so many stair-steppers? [OED].
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 75: There were nine of them, husband and wife and seven stair-step children – the youngest a toddling tot, the eldest a rawboned boy.
1971		B. Moyers Listening to America 114: There were six brothers. The mother died of cancer when they were just little stairsteps.

casual or clandestine sexual intercourse.

c.1610

Shakespeare Winter’s Tale III iii: This has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work.

see dance v. (3)

(UK prison) to work on the treadmill.

[1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life II 285: Ven vos you last valking up stairs and never gettin’ no higher—so? (marching his feet in the dock)].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 144/2: Upon a signal being given (the ringing of a bell) every occupier of an alternative box instantly jumps on the ‘stepper’ or treadmill, and holding on by an iron bar running the length of the ‘mill,’ commences his ‘getting up stairs’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 219: ‘Thought to get £60 out of me, did you ? My poor lads, there'll be “such a getting up stairs” for you for the next three months’.

to rain very heavily.

1914		Clifton Society 16 Apr. 13/1: Outside the church portico it is coming down stair-rods.
1929		Tatler (London) 17 July 10/1: Rain like stair-rods on Thursday morning.
1933		Tatler (London) 10 May 6/2: We want sunshine [...] it starts to rain stair-rods.
1936		‘Josephine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 177: ‘Rain like stair-rods’ [...] ‘I suppose you were soaking’.
1949		Tatler (London) 16 Nov. 32/1: It came on to rain star-rods.
1989		H. Harrison Bill [...] on the Planet of Robot Slaves (1991) 9: It was raining stair-rods when he opened the barracks door.
1993		Newcastle Jrnl 11 May 38/7: An hour of the final day was lost to Manchester’s stair-rod morning rain.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 13: Welsh rain, drivin rain, comin down like fuckin iron rods.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 133: The actual downpour came – stair-rods, you were talking about.

a prison treadmill.

1840		Carlisle Patriot 8 Feb. 4/1: Now the Judges are going to jail [...] / All Beaks and Recorders, the stairs without landing to scale.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 300: He’s lodging now at Coldbaths Fields – getting up the stairs without a landing.

1. (US black) the female thighs.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive.

2. (Aus./N.Z.) a ladder in a stocking.

1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 83: A ladder in a stocking is known as ‘a stairway to heaven’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

3. the vagina.

2002

D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Mind you, Dionne’s position isn’t as clever as mine, what with having to lean back on her arms at the same time as Monica makes her pose with my ramrod right up her stairway to heaven.