Steel Definition

stēl

steeled, steeling, steels

noun

steels

A hard, tough metal composed of iron alloyed with various small percentages of carbon and often variously with other metals, as nickel, chromium, manganese, etc., to produce hardness, resistance to rusting, etc.

Webster's New World

Something made of steel.

Webster's New World

A quality suggestive of this alloy, especially a hard, unflinching character.

American Heritage

Great strength, hardness, or toughness.

Webster's New World

Shares of stock in steel-making companies.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
sword
brand
blade
whetstone
sharpening rod
oilstone
tempered-steel
stainless-steel
iron
iron alloy

adjective

Made with, relating to, or consisting of steel.

Steel beams; the steel industry; a bicycle with a steel frame.

American Heritage

Very firm or strong.

A steel grip.

American Heritage

Of or like steel.

Webster's New World

Similar to steel in color, strength, &c.; steely.

Wiktionary

(business) Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.

Wiktionary

verb

steeled, steeling, steels

To cover or edge with steel.

Webster's New World

To make hard, tough, unfeeling, etc.

Webster's New World

1651, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, XXVIII Sermons Preacht at Golden Grove, Being for the Summer Half-year, XIX"‰248

When God...draws aside his curtain, and shows his arsenal and his armory, full of arrows steeled with wrath.

Wiktionary

1831, John Holland, A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufactures in Metal, I"‰220

It was the common notion...that the art of steeling tools in the highest degree of perfection was certainly lost to the moderns.

Wiktionary

(dialectical) To press with a flat iron.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Antonyms:
fail
weaken

pronoun

1819, J. H. Vaux, New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Mem.

Bastile, generally called for shortnes, the steel a cant name for the House of Correction, Cold-Bath-Fields, London.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Steel

Noun

Singular:

steel

Plural:

steels

Origin of Steel

From Middle English stele and stel, from Old English (North) stÄ“le, (South) stȳle (“the metal steel"), from Proto-Germanic *stahlijÄ… (“something made of steel") (compare West Frisian stiel), enlargement of *stahlÄ… (“the metal steel") (compare Dutch staal, German Stahl, Danish stÃ¥l, 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 𐬀𐬭𐬑𐬀𐬙𐬯 (staxra) "˜strong', Sanskrit [script?] (stákati) "˜resist, strike against'), related to Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand").

From Wiktionary
From French Bastille (“a French prison") via Cockney rhyming slang

From Wiktionary
Middle English stel from Old English stȳle, stēl

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition