/stiːl/, [stiːɫ]
OriginFrom 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.
- countable, uncountableAn artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
“Ocearium stæli.”
“Accearium steeli.”
“Þe alle þine leomen wule to-draȝen. þeh þu weore stel al.”
- countable, uncountableBladed or pointed weapons, as swords, javelins, daggers.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableA piece used for striking sparks from flint.
“Of ston mid stel in ðe tunder wel to brennen one ðis wunder.”
“The Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel.”
- countable, uncountableArmor.
“Þai gun hem boþe armi In iren and stiel þat tide.”
“In compleate steele.”
“She that has [chastity], is clad in compleat steel.” — Comus
- countable, uncountableA honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades.
“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, ”
- countable, uncountablePieces used to strengthen, support, or expand an item of clothing.
“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.”
- countable, dialectal, uncountableA flat iron.
“One of them having occasion to use a Steele, smoothing Iron, or some such kinde of Laundry Instrument.”
- countable, dialectal, uncountableA sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus.
“The threaded steel...Flies swiftly.”
- countable, uncountableAn engraving plate.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableProjectiles.
“The crews at the port batteries were pumping steel at the enemy.”
- countable, uncountableA fringe of beads or decoration of this metal.
“A trailing skirt embroidered in what is termed fine steel.”
- countable, uncountableA type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.
- obsolete, uncountableMedicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.
“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.”
- uncountableThe gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
“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 robu”
- countable, figuratively, uncountableExtreme hardness or resilience.
- not-comparableMade of steel.
“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.”
- not-comparableSimilar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
“Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.”
“Prison my heart in thy steele bosomes warde.”
- not-comparableOf or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
“[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.”
- not-comparable, obsoleteContaining steel.
“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.”
- not-comparableEngraved on steel.
“The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.”
- literally, transitiveTo edge, cover, or point with steel.
“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.”
- literally, obsolete, transitiveTo back with steel.
“Nay, a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside.”
- literally, obsolete, transitiveTo treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.
“She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.”
- literally, transitiveTo electroplate an item (particularly an engraving plate) with a layer of iron.
“My large dry-point,...called Two Stumps of Driftwood, gave 1000 copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing.”
- literally, transitiveTo sharpen with a honing steel.
- literally, transitiveTo steelify; to turn iron into steel.
“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.”
- figuratively, transitiveTo harden or strengthen; to nerve or make obdurate; to fortify against.
“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.”
- figuratively, literary, poetic, transitiveTo give (something) the appearance of steel.
“And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.”
- dialectal, transitiveTo press with a flat iron.
“Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.”
- UK, obsolete, slang, transitiveColdbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.
“I was lugged before the beak, who gave me six doss in the steel. [...] six months in the Bastille (the old House of Corrections), Coldbath Fields.”
“He said he had been in the “steel” (Coldbath Fields Prison) eight times.”
“This time I got two moon for assaulting the reelers when canon. For this I went to the Steel (Bastile^([sic]) — Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on me and about fifty blow in my b”
- A surname.
- UK, historical, obsolete, slangBridewell Prison in London, England.
Formssteels(plural) · steele(alternative, obsolete) · steels(present, singular, third-person) · steeling(participle, present) · steeled(participle, past) · steeled(past) · the Steel(canonical)