steel
Part of speech: noun
adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
entertainment
guitar
lifestyle
manufacturing
media
medicine
music
printing
publishing
sciences
sewing
textiles
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, German Stahl, Dutch staal, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stål.
Inflected forms:
form: steels
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: steele
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: steele
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: steels
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: steeling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: steeled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: steeled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: steele
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Ocearium stæli.
Accearium steeli.
Þe alle þine leomen wule to-draȝen. þeh þu weore stel al.
Employeng the steell of his swerd the most best wyse that in hym was possible.
Weman...with wordis cane rycht wele our-cum mene hard as stele.
The purest part thereof [of iron ore] which in Latine is called Nucleus ferri, i. the kernell or heart of the yron (and it is that which we call steele)
Shall yron breake the Northren yron, and the steele?
...Like a man of Steele.
The bars are exposed to two or three successive processes of cementation, and are hence said to be twice or thrice converted into steels.
Steel may be roughly defined as an alloy of iron and carbon containing up to 1.7% carbon, all of the carbon being in the combined condition. A second definition, distinguishing it from cast or wrought iron, is that it has been produced in the molten condition, and a third states that steel can be hardened by quenching from a suitably high temperature. There are...certain exceptions to all these definitions.
For the iron to be made into steel (defined as iron with a carefully controlled carbon content of 1.7 percent or less) the sulfur, the silicon, and the excess carbon must be removed.
Steel properties vary based on composition and processing. Different formulations and manufacturing methods produce steels with a spectrum of characteristics, including yield strength.
US Steel was once a symbol of American industrial power. It was the most valuable company in the world and, soon after its 1901 creation, became the first to be worth $1 billion. Its steel helped build America, from the skyscrapers dotting city landscapes to the cars speeding down highways, to the appliances inside millions of homes.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: For heom ne may halter ne bridel Bringe from here wode wyse, Ne mon mid stele ne mid ire.
For braue Macbeth (well hee deſerues that Name)
Diſdayning Fortune, with his brandiſht Steele,
Which ſmoak'd with bloody execution
(Like Valours Minion) caru'd out his paſſage.
But who wou'd dream that out of abundant Charity and Brotherly Love shou'd come Steel, Fire, Gibbets, Rods.
They have asked for the steel. They shall have it now; Out cutlasses and board!
While one man was beating off the swords, the waters stole up silently and took him. Contrariwise, another was struggling with the waves, when the steel came up and encompassed him. The flowing waters were befouled with the gory spray. Thus the Ruthenians were conquered...
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Of ston mid stel in ðe tunder wel to brennen one ðis wunder.
The Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Þai gun hem boþe armi In iren and stiel þat tide.
In compleate steele.
She that has [chastity], is clad in compleat steel.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The steill to scherp the schawing jrne.
When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones...
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I haue a ruffe is a quarter deep, measured by the yeard... You haue a pretty set too, how big is the steele you set with?
I suppose the bullet must have struck the steels in my corsets.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
dialectal
uncountable
examples: One of them having occasion to use a Steele, smoothing Iron, or some such kinde of Laundry Instrument.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
dialectal
uncountable
examples: The threaded steel...Flies swiftly.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: A re-issue of the Examples of the Architecture of Venice. By John Ruskin... With the Text, and the 16 Plates (10 Steels and 6 Lithographs) as originally published.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The crews at the port batteries were pumping steel at the enemy.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: A trailing skirt embroidered in what is termed fine steel.
gloss: Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Medicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
uncountable
examples: A stronger physick is now necessary, perhaps a whole course of steel: A physick, God knowes, that this Kingdome hath been under five or six yeares.
Steel is not so good as Iron for Medicinal Operation.
The Doctor tells me I must go into a Course of Steel, tho I have not the Spleen.
I...am really only kept alive by steel.
gloss: The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Falkenhayn gave...to Jane a steel glacé silk dress.
It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was transparently pure and soft, with a woman’s look, and the robust and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson’s chest in his sleep.
gloss: Extreme hardness or resilience.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
gloss: Made of steel.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: Strained in stel ger on steedes of might.
The tyrant custome...Hath made the flinty and steele Cooch of warre, My thrice driuen bed of downe.
I will grasp the mountain-hedgehog, prickles and all, with my steel-gauntlet.
King Peter attributed his father's, King Alexander's, death to the fact that...he had not worn his steel-mesh bullet-proof shirt.
gloss: Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.
Prison my heart in thy steele bosomes warde.
gloss: Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: [T]he discoverie of the yron and steele mines.
From their new dungeons at Chantilly, Aristocrats may hear the rustle of our new steel furnace there.
East Chicago, Ind., a smoky Lake Michigan steel town that isn't exactly famous for its esthetic splendor even when the sun shines.
gloss: Containing steel.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
examples: To mix some Sugar of steel, or steel wine with the first glass.
I have found a singular Virtue in Steel drops, præpared after my Mode.
I...take some nasty steel drops, & may head has been bettr.
gloss: Engraved on steel.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
transitive
examples: Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.
When God...draws aside his curtain, and shows his arsenal and his armory, full of arrows steeled with wrath.
It was the common notion...that the art of steeling tools in the highest degree of perfection was certainly lost to the moderns.
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
obsolete
transitive
examples: Nay, a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside.
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
obsolete
transitive
examples: She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
transitive
examples: My large dry-point,...called Two Stumps of Driftwood, gave 1000 copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing.
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
transitive
gloss: To treat, furnish with, or transform into steel.
pos: verb
tags: literally
transitive
examples: By passing an electric current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much hastened.
It seems evident that by the beginning of the 10th century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron.
gloss: To cause to resemble steel.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: But stil he was so steelde With heart so good, as victor he dead left them in the field.
Giue me my heart...O giue it me lest thy hard heart do steele it, And being steeld, soft sighes can neuer graue it.
Ile in to vrge his hatred more to Clarence, With lies well steeld with weighty arguments.
Steel yourself, then, firmly to withstand attacks from the cruel and unfeeling.
The rich experience of a long life steeled in the victorious struggle with every unchristian element.
gloss: To cause to resemble steel.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
literary
poetic
transitive
examples: And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.
gloss: To press with a flat iron.
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
transitive
examples: Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.
Related words: cast iron
wrought iron
Derived words: alloy steel
austenitic steel
balls of steel
Bessemer steel
Biosteel
blister-steel
blister steel
bright lights and cold steel
bronze steel
carbon steel
cement steel
cold steel and bright lights
console steel guitar
console steel guitarist
crucible steel
Damascus steel
damascus steel
Damask steel
draw one's steel
electrosteel
finger steel
firesteel
flowers of steel
German steel
granulated steel
hard steel
high-speed steel
high speed steel
high steel
India steel
lap steel
lap steel guitar
lap steel guitarist
low-background steel
low steel
manganese steel
man of steel
marage steel
maraging steel
mild steel
mind like a steel trap
native steel
natural steel
nerves of steel
nickel steel
nonsteel
ovaries of steel
oxysteel
pedal steel
pedal steel guitar
pedal steel guitarist
phosphorus steel
plasteel
presteel
radiosteel
resteel
ring of steel
salt of steel
semisteel
Siemens-Martin steel
silicon steel
silver steel
soft steel
spring steel
steelback
steel band
steelband
steel bandsman
steel bar
steel-barred
steel beach party
steel beach picnic
steel beetle
steel bender
steel-black
steel blue
steel-blue
steel-born
steel-bosomed
steel-bound
steel-bow
Steelboy
steel-bright
steel bronze
steel-browed
steel cage match
steel-clad
steelclad
steel-colored
steel-cut
steel driver
steel drops
steel drum
steel drummer
Steele
steelen
steel-engraved
steel-engraver
steel engraving
steeler
steel-erector
steel-face
steel-faced
steel-facing
steel fall
steel finch
steel fixer
steel frame
steel-framed
steel framework
steel-girt
steel grain
steel-grained
steel-grated
steel-graven
steel-green
steel-grey
steel guitar
steel guitarist
steel-hard
steel-hardened
steelhead
steel head
steel-hilted
steel horse
steelie
steelification
steelify
steel iron
steelless
steellike
steel-lined
steel lozenge
steel lustre
steel magnolia
steelmaker
steel-maker
steelmaking
steel-making
steel man
steelman
steel marl
steelmaster
steel master
steel mill
steel mine
steel-nerved
steel-nose
steel orchestra
steel-ore
steel pannist
steel pan orchestra
steelpan
steel pan
steel-piercing
steel pill
steel pipe
steel plant
steel-pointed
steel pot
steel pot helmet
steel ring
steel-rolling
steels
steel saddle
steel-shafted
steel-sharp
steel-shod
steel square
steel-straight
steel-string guitar
steel-strong
steel-studded
steel tape
steel-tempered
steel-thin
steel-tipped
steel-toe boot
steel-topped
steel to the very back
steel town
steel toys
steel trade
steel trap
steel-using
steelware
steel water
steel wheel
steel wine
steel wool
steel-wool
steelwork
steelworker
steel-worker
steel worker
steelworking
steelworks
steely
steelyard
steely-eyed
structural steel
sugar of steel
table steel
table steel guitar
table steel guitarist
tincture of steel
Toledo steel
transparisteel
true as steel
turning steel
vanadium steel
weathering steel
weld steel
wheels of steel
steel up
unsteel
unsteeled
Translations: