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Definition steel

Etymology 1

From Middle English stele and stel, from Old English st?le, st?le (“the metal steel”), from Proto-Germanic *stahlij? (“something made of steel”) (compare West Frisian stiel), enlargement of *stahl? (“the metal steel”) (compare Dutch staal, German Stahl, Danish stål, Icelandic stál), from Proto-Germanic *stah- or *stag- (“to be firm, rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *stak- (“to stay, to be firm”) (compare Umbrian stakaz (“upright, erected”), Avestan ??????‎ (staxra, “strong”), Sanskrit ?????? (stákati, “resist, strike against”)), related to Proto-Indo-European *steh?- (“to stand”).

Noun

steel (countable and uncountable, plural steels)

1. An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
2. (countable) Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
   1. Bladed or pointed weapons, as swords, javelins, daggers.
   2. A piece used for striking sparks from flint.
   3. Armor.
   4. A honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades.
   5. (sewing) Pieces used to strengthen, support, or expand an item of clothing.
   6. (dialectal) A flat iron.
   7. (sewing, dialectal) A sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus.
   8. (printing) An engraving plate:
   9. Projectiles.
   10. (sewing) A fringe of beads or decoration of this metal.
   11. (music, guitar) A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.
3. (uncountable, medicine, obsolete) Medicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.
4. (countable) Varieties of this metal.
5. (uncountable, colors) The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
6. (figuratively) Extreme hardness or resilience.

Adjective

steel (not comparable)

1. Made of steel.
2. Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
3. (business) Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
4. (medicine, obsolete) Containing steel.
5. (printing) Engraved on steel.

Verb

steel (third-person singular simple present steels, present participle steeling, simple past and past participle steeled)

1. (transitive) To edge, cover, or point with steel.
2. 1651, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, XXVIII Sermons Preacht at Golden Grove, Being for the Summer Half-year, XIX 248:
3. 1831, John Holland, A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufactures in Metal, I 220:
4. (transitive) To harden or strengthen; to nerve or make obdurate; to fortify against.
5. (transitive, obsolete, of mirrors) To back with steel.
6. (transitive, medicine, obsolete) To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.
7. (transitive, dialectal) To press with a flat iron.
8. (transitive, uncommon) To cause to resemble steel in appearance.
9. (transitive) To steelify; to turn iron into steel.
10. (transitive) To electroplate an item, particularly an engraving plate, with a layer of iron.
11. (transitive) To sharpen with a honing steel.

Etymology 2

From French Bastille (a French prison).

Proper noun

steel

1. (Britain, crime, slang, obsolete) Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.

Results 486 Words with the letters STEEL

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