steerage

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: steer=age

CIDE DICTIONARY

steerage, n. 

•  The act or practice of steering, or directing; as, the steerage of a ship.  [1913 Webster]

  "He left the city, and, in a most tempestuous season, forsook the helm and steerage of the commonwealth."  [1913 Webster]
•  The effect of the helm on a ship; the manner in which an individual ship is affected by the helm.  [1913 Webster]
•  Direction; regulation; management; guidance.  [1913 Webster]

  "He that hath the steerage of my course."  [1913 Webster]
•  That by which a course is directed.  [1913 Webster]

  "Here he hung on high,
  The steerage of his wings."  [1913 Webster]

Steerage passenger, a passenger who takes passage in the steerage of a vessel.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

steerage, n.
1 the act of steering.
2 the effect of the helm on a ship.
3 archaic the part of a ship allotted to passengers travelling at the cheapest rate.
4 hist. (in a warship) quarters assigned to midshipmen etc. just forward of the wardroom.

Idiom

steerage-way the amount of headway required by a vessel to enable her to be controlled by the helm.

ROGET THESAURUS

steerage

Direction

N direction, management, managery, government, gubernation, conduct, legislation, regulation, guidance, bossism, legislature, steerage, pilotage, reins, reins of government, helm, rudder, needle, compass, guiding star, load star, lode star, pole star, cynosure, supervision, superintendence, surveillance, oversight, eye of the master, control, charge, board of control, command, premiership, senatorship, director, chair, portfolio, statesmanship, statecraft, kingcraft, queencraft, ministry, ministration, administration, stewardship, proctorship, agency, director, directing, hegemonic, at the helm, at the head of, direction, bearing, course, vector, set, drift, tenor, tendency, incidence, bending, trending, dip, tack, aim, collimation, steering steerage, point of the compass, cardinal points, North East, South, West, N by E, ENE, NE by N, NE, rhumb, azimuth, line of collimation, line, path, road, range, quarter, line of march, alignment, allignment, air line, beeline, straight shoot, directed, directed towards, pointing towards, bound for, aligned, with alligned with, direct, straight, undeviating, unswerving, straightforward, North, Northern, Northerly, towards, on the road, on the high road to, en avant, versus, to, hither, thither, whither, directly, straight as an arrow, forwards as an arrow, point blank, in a bee line to, in a direct line to, as the crow flies, in a straight line to, in a bee line for, in a direct line for, in a straight line for, in a bee line with, in a direct line with, in a straight line with, in a line with, full tilt at, as the crow flies, before the wind, near the wind, close to the wind, against the wind, windwards, in the wind's eye, through, via, by way of, in all directions, in all manner of ways, quaquaversum, from the four winds, the shortest distance between two points is a stra.