Steel
[stiːl] or [stil]
Definition
(noun.) knife sharpener consisting of a ridged steel rod.
(noun.) an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range.
(verb.) cover, plate, or edge with steel.
(verb.) get ready for something difficult or unpleasant.
Inputed by Abner--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A variety of iron intermediate in composition and properties between wrought iron and cast iron (containing between one half of one per cent and one and a half per cent of carbon), and consisting of an alloy of iron with an iron carbide. Steel, unlike wrought iron, can be tempered, and retains magnetism. Its malleability decreases, and fusibility increases, with an increase in carbon.
(n.) An instrument or implement made of steel
(n.) A weapon, as a sword, dagger, etc.
(n.) An instrument of steel (usually a round rod) for sharpening knives.
(n.) A piece of steel for striking sparks from flint.
(n.) Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor.
(n.) A chalybeate medicine.
(n.) To overlay, point, or edge with steel; as, to steel a razor; to steel an ax.
(n.) To make hard or strong; hence, to make insensible or obdurate.
(n.) Fig.: To cause to resemble steel, as in smoothness, polish, or other qualities.
(n.) To cover, as an electrotype plate, with a thin layer of iron by electrolysis. The iron thus deposited is very hard, like steel.
Edited by Ethelred
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Case-harden, edge or point with steel.[2]. Harden, strengthen, fortify, nerve, brace, make firm.
Checked by Emil
Definition
n. iron combined in varying proportions with carbon for making edged tools: any instrument or weapon of steel: an instrument of steel for sharpening knives on: a strip of steel for stiffening a corset: a piece of steel for striking fire from a flint: extreme hardness: a chalybeate medicine.—adj. made of steel: hard unfeeling.—v.t. to overlay or edge with steel: to harden: to make obdurate.—adj. Steel′-clad clad with steel-mail.—ns. Steel′-engraving the art of engraving pictures on steel plates from which impressions may be taken the impression or print so taken; Steel′iness state of being steely great hardness; Steel′ing the welding of a steel edge on a cutting instrument; Steel′-pen a pen-nib made of steel; Steel′-plate a plate of steel: a plate of polished steel on which a design is engraved the print taken from such.—adj. Steel′-plāt′ed plated with steel.—n.pl. Steel′-toys small articles of steel as buttons buckles &c.—n. Steel′-ware articles made of steel collectively.—adj. Steel′y made of steel: steel-like.
Checker: Osbert
Examples
- Three of the weapons struck against him, and splintered with as little effect as if they had been driven against a tower of steel. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The conductor from the hopper to the machine is made of two strips of steel, down which the pins, held by their heads, slide. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Small holes a few inches apart are cut along a certain length of rock, into which steel wedges are inserted. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- He fired on it and he could hear the spang against the steel. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Catherine wore hobnailed boots and a cape and carried a stick with a sharp steel point. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- When the bed is finished, the strips are clamped with steel clamps, the turned-up ends of which firmly grip the sides of the bed, thus preventing warping or spreading. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Steel's Bayou empties into the Yazoo River between Haines' Bluff and its mouth. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- But he had steeled himself. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- I steeled myself against the delusion; the room itself was vacant: it was only prudent, I repeated to myself, to examine the rest of the house. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Her colour rose a little at the implication, but she steeled herself with a light laugh. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Her soul steeled itself with strength. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steeled his heart against her. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- There was no buying of foundry iron by analysis, no high carbon steels, no fancy tool steels--nor any efficiency experts with their stop watches and scientific speed-and-feed tables. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Checker: Shelia