Definition of "staircase"

I was on the staircase by the bell / Blinded by the black magician's spell

2011, “13 Candles”, performed by Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats

Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915

When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎

This leads to much smoother reconstructions in regions of moderate gradient and thus prevents staircasing.

2006, Nikos Paragios, Yunmei Chen, Olivier D. Faugeras, editors, Handbook of Mathematical Models in Computer Vision, Springer Science & Business Media, page 26

It is a good idea to make plans for staircasing when you first buy your shared ownership home.

2018, Dave Cowan, Helen Carr, Alison Wallace, Ownership, Narrative, Things, Springer, page 139