[Apple employees and users] Terminated, said of a development project. Originated after Steven P. Jobs returned to Apple as acting CEO in 1997. Jobs immediated axed several development projects, including OpenDoc and Newton that had been launched by John Sculley, the man who had ousted Jobs in the mid 1980s. Now any project shut down at Apple and often at any large firm connected with Apple may be said to have gotten steved. It is usually spelled lowercase despite the origin. It is almost always past-tense and used quasi-adjectivally.