Other forms: steering, steered, steers
To steer is to point a moving vehicle where you want it to go. Hands on the wheel, or a tiller under your arm.
Cars, boats and bicycles all get steered, and steering is the whole system that does it. The figurative sense is very common, since you can steer a conversation away from a subject or steer somebody towards a decision. There is a fixed phrase, since steering clear of something means avoiding it deliberately. A completely separate noun means a young bull raised for beef.
Steering began at sea. Old English stēoran meant to guide a vessel, and the noun behind it meant steering or guidance, so steering a conversation is a nautical metaphor nobody notices any more.
Proto-Germanic
*stiurijaną — to steer
Proto-West Germanic
*stiurijan — to steer
Old English
stēoran
Middle English
steeren
English, today
steer
Built from
Middle English steeren, steren, stiren, sturen, steoren, from Old English stēoran, stīeran, stȳran (“to steer; guide a vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic stiurijan (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic stiurijaną (“to steer”). The noun is from Middle English steere, stere (“rudder”), steor, from Old English stēor, stȳr (“steering; guidance; direction”). Compare Dutch stuur, German Steuer, Icelandic stýri.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA