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Steel

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steel¹

  • /stiːl/
  • [stiːɫ]

Sounds like steal, stele · Rhymes with -iːl

Where it comes from

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.

noun steels · steele

  1. countable, uncountable An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness. Ocearium stæli.
  2. countable, uncountable Bladed 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.
  3. countable, uncountable A piece used for striking sparks from flint or ferrocerium. Of ston mid stel in ðe tunder wel to brennen one ðis wunder.
  4. countable, uncountable Armor. Þai gun hem boþe armi In iren and stiel þat tide.
  5. countable, uncountable A honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades. The steill to scherp the schawing jrne.
  6. countable, uncountable Pieces 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?
  7. countable, dialectal, uncountable A flat iron. One of them having occasion to use a Steele, smoothing Iron, or some such kinde of Laundry Instrument.
  8. countable, dialectal, uncountable A sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus. The threaded steel...Flies swiftly.
  9. countable, uncountable An 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.
  10. countable, uncountable Projectiles. The crews at the port batteries were pumping steel at the enemy.
  11. countable, uncountable A fringe of beads or decoration of this metal. A trailing skirt embroidered in what is termed fine steel.
  12. countable, uncountable A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.
  13. obsolete, uncountable Medicinal 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.
  14. uncountable The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue. Falkenhayn gave...to Jane a steel glacé silk dress.
  15. countable, figuratively, uncountable Extreme hardness or resilience.

adjective steele

  1. not comparable Made of steel. Strained in stel ger on steedes of might.
  2. not comparable Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely. Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.
  3. not comparable Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel. [T]he discoverie of the yron and steele mines.
  4. not comparable, obsolete Containing steel. To mix some Sugar of steel, or steel wine with the first glass.
  5. not comparable Engraved on steel. The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.

verb steels · steeling · steeled · steele

  1. literally, transitive To edge, cover, or point with steel. Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.
  2. literally, obsolete, transitive To 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.
  3. literally, obsolete, transitive To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes. She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.
  4. literally, transitive To 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.
  5. literally, transitive To sharpen with a honing steel.
  6. literally, transitive To steelify; to turn iron into steel. By passing an electric current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much hastened.
  7. figuratively, transitive To 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.
  8. figuratively, literary, poetic, transitive To give (something) the appearance of steel. And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.
  9. dialectal, transitive To press with a flat iron. Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.

steel²

  • /stiːl/
  • [stiːɫ]

Sounds like steal, stele · Rhymes with -iːl

Where it comes from

From French Bastille (a French prison).

proper noun steele

  1. UK, obsolete, slang, transitive Coldbath 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.

Steel³

Rhymes with -iːl

proper noun

  1. A surname.

Steel⁴

Rhymes with -iːl

Where it comes from

From Bastille.

proper noun the Steel

  1. UK, historical, obsolete, slang Bridewell Prison in London, England.

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