steel
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: stēl
ipa: /stiːl/
ipa: [stiːɫ]
homophone: steal
homophone: stele
rhymes: -iːl
Forms: form: steels
form: steeling
form: steeled
form: steeled
form: steele
Etymology: From Middle English stele, stel, from Old English stīele, from Proto-West Germanic *stahlī (“something made of steel”), enlargement of *stahl (“steel”), from Proto-Germanic *stahlą, from *stah- or *stag- (“to be firm, rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *stak- (“to stay, to be firm”). Compare Scots stele, Yola stehli.
Senses: examples: text: Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.
ref: c. 1240, “Sawles Warde”, in The Cotton Homilies, section 253:
text: When God...draws aside his curtain, and shows his arsenal and his armory, full of arrows steeled with wrath.
ref: 1651, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, XXVIII Sermons Preacht at Golden Grove, Being for the Summer Half-year, XIX 248:
text: It was the common notion...that the art of steeling tools in the highest degree of perfection was certainly lost to the moderns.
ref: 1831, John Holland, A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufactures in Metal, I 220:
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To edge, cover, or point with steel.
examples: text: Nay, a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside.
ref: c. 1630, John Donne, Sermons, VI 289:
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To back with steel.
raw_tags: of mirrors
examples: text: She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.
ref: 1657, J. Hall, translated by J. Cooke, Cures, section 117:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.
examples: text: My large dry-point,...called Two Stumps of Driftwood, gave 1000 copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing.
ref: 1880, P. G. Hamerton, Etching & Etchers, 3rd edition, section 342:
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To electroplate an item (particularly an engraving plate) with a layer of iron.
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To sharpen with a honing steel.
examples: text: By passing an electric current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much hastened.
ref: 1853, Jrnl. Franklin Inst., CXXV 303:
text: It seems evident that by the beginning of the 10th century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron.
ref: 1977 Oct, Scientific American, 127 1:
glosses: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
To steelify; to turn iron into steel.
examples: text: But stil he was so steelde With heart so good, as victor he dead left them in the field.
ref: 1581, Homer, translated by A. Hall, 10 Bks. Iliades, VI 110:
text: Giue me my heart...O giue it me lest thy hard heart do steele it, And being steeld, soft sighes can neuer graue it.
ref: 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
text: Ile in to vrge his hatred more to Clarence, With lies well steeld with weighty arguments.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 148:
text: Steel yourself, then, firmly to withstand attacks from the cruel and unfeeling.
ref: 1796, F. Burney, Camilla, II iv vi 370
text: The rich experience of a long life steeled in the victorious struggle with every unchristian element.
ref: 1882, F. W. Farrar, Early Days Christianity, II 380
glosses: To cause to resemble steel.
To harden or strengthen; to nerve or make obdurate; to fortify against.
examples: text: And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.
ref: 1807, William Wordsworth, Sonn. to Liberty, II v:
glosses: To cause to resemble steel.
To give (something) the appearance of steel.
examples: text: Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.
ref: 1746, Exmoor Scolding, 3rd edition, II 14:
glosses: To press with a flat iron.
Derived terms: steel up
unsteel
unsteeled