steerage

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

We tried to fly standby on an earlier departure, but another couple jumped us on the list at the last moment, and a gate agent said it was probably because we had booked into steerage.

From Slate • Oct. 9, 2025

Her job doesn’t allow for remote work, and she said she didn’t want to subject her large dog to the steerage of an airplane.

From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2022

Wilson’s tone softened when he mentioned how three of his four grandparents were immigrants, including a maternal grandmother who came to the U.S. on a boat as a 16-year-old in steerage class.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 17, 2019

That’s another cruel irony: Never before has air travel seemed so democraticized, affordable to so many, yet so stratified, turning economy into steerage with pretzels.

From Washington Post • Sep. 8, 2019

But even with all of this, as I stood on the lower deck outside our dark, cramped rooms in steerage, watching the oily water churn beneath the Agnes Pauline, I felt my spirits lift.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline