From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsteeragesteer‧age /ˈstɪərɪdʒ $ ˈstɪr-/ noun [uncountable] TTWthe part of a passenger ship where people who had the cheapest tickets used to travel in the past
Examples from the Corpus
steerage• Tony had a danger inside him; other men saw it and gave him steerage.• Those in steerage tend to be forgotten, said Whitcomb, as do most people without money in the Edwardian era.• With just enough power to give Joanna steerage way I felt my way slowly upstream.• Yvonne Flatman had been designated the role of temporary helmsman and declared, cheerfully, that she had virtually no steerage way.• It would not be safe to have you going to and fro between the steerage and our quarters.• The colours on the sea grew flat, flatly reflected flesh secretly seen at night down in the steerage.• But the captain has informed me that there is a case of smallpox in the steerage.• The lower deck, shining clean now, was thronged with steerage passengers.Origin steerage (1800-1900) steerage “steering (place)” ((15-21 centuries)); because this part of the ship was next to the rudder 