steel
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: stēl
ipa: /stiːl/
ipa: [stiːɫ]
homophone: steal
homophone: stele
rhymes: -iːl
Forms: 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: Strained in stel ger on steedes of might.
ref: mid-14th century, Alisaunder, 416
text: The tyrant custome...Hath made the flinty and steele Cooch of warre, My thrice driuen bed of downe.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], line 229:
text: I will grasp the mountain-hedgehog, prickles and all, with my steel-gauntlet.
ref: 1829 May 2, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Anne of Geierstein; or, The Maiden of the Mist. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Co., […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […], →OCLC, page 78:
text: King Peter attributed his father's, King Alexander's, death to the fact that...he had not worn his steel-mesh bullet-proof shirt.
ref: 1976, J. Wheeler-Bennett, Friends, Enemies, & Sovereigns, V, 156:
glosses: Made of steel.
examples: text: Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.
ref: c. 1560, Vergil, translated by T. Phaer, Nyne Fyrst Books of the Eneidos, section X:
text: Prison my heart in thy steele bosomes warde.
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 133”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
glosses: Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
examples: text: [T]he discoverie of the yron and steele mines.
ref: 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] LVI.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 188:
text: From their new dungeons at Chantilly, Aristocrats may hear the rustle of our new steel furnace there.
ref: 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VI, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 327:
text: East Chicago, Ind., a smoky Lake Michigan steel town that isn't exactly famous for its esthetic splendor even when the sun shines.
ref: 1976 January 24, National Observer, 1, 1:
topics: business
glosses: Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
examples: text: To mix some Sugar of steel, or steel wine with the first glass.
ref: 1652, J. French, York-shire Spaw, X, 92:
text: I have found a singular Virtue in Steel drops, præpared after my Mode.
ref: 1675, G. Harvey, Dis. of London, XXIV, 264:
text: I...take some nasty steel drops, & may head has been bettr.
ref: 1713 February 17, Journal to Stella, Jonathan Swift, II, 622:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Containing steel.
examples: text: The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.
ref: 1880, Mark Twain, letter
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: Engraved on steel.