Definition of "steel"

Ocearium stæli.

c. 725, Corpus Gloss., published 1431

Accearium steeli.

c. 825, Epinal Gloss., section 49

Þe alle þine leomen wule to-draȝen. þeh þu weore stel al.

c. 1275, Laȝamon, Brut, 12916

Employeng the steell of his swerd the most best wyse that in hym was possible.

c. 1473, Raoul Le Fèvre, translated by William Caxton, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, section I

Weman...with wordis cane rycht wele our-cum mene hard as stele.

c. 1480, St. Mary Magdalen, 408 in 1896, W. M. Metcalfe, Legends Saints Sc. Dial., I 267

The purest part thereof [of iron ore] which in Latine is called Nucleus ferri, i. the kernell or heart of the yron (and it is that which we call steele)

1601, Pliny, translated by P. Holland, Hist. World, II xxxiv xiv 514

Shall yron breake the Northren yron, and the steele?(The Hebrew word is נחשת meaning copper. "Bow of steele" occurs in three places translating קשת נחושה.)

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Jeremiah 15:12

...Like a man of Steele.

c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iv], line 33

The bars are exposed to two or three successive processes of cementation, and are hence said to be twice or thrice converted into steels.

1839, A. Ure, Dict. Arts, published 1172

Steel may be roughly defined as an alloy of iron and carbon containing up to 1.7% carbon, all of the carbon being in the combined condition. A second definition, distinguishing it from cast or wrought iron, is that it has been produced in the molten condition, and a third states that steel can be hardened by quenching from a suitably high temperature. There are...certain exceptions to all these definitions.

1946, Thorpe's Dictionary of Applied Chemistry, 4th edition, VII 47 1

For the iron to be made into steel (defined as iron with a carefully controlled carbon content of 1.7 percent or less) the sulfur, the silicon, and the excess carbon must be removed.

1976 Jul, Scientific American, 68 2

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.

1649, H. Hammond, Christians Obligations, X 253

Steel is not so good as Iron for Medicinal Operation.

1704, J. Harris, Lexicon Technicum, volume L

The Doctor tells me I must go into a Course of Steel, tho I have not the Spleen.

1712 September 18, Journal to Stella, Jonathan Swift, II 558

I...am really only kept alive by steel.

1866, Princess Alice, Mem., section 158

Falkenhayn gave...to Jane a steel glacé silk dress.

1851 Dec 28, E. Ruskin, letter in 1965, M. Lutyens, Effie in Venice, II 236

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 robust and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson’s chest in his sleep.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 132”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley

Strained in stel ger on steedes of might.

mid-14th century, Alisaunder, 416

The tyrant custome...Hath made the flinty and steele Cooch of warre, My thrice driuen bed of downe.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii], line 229

I will grasp the mountain-hedgehog, prickles and all, with my steel-gauntlet.

1829 May 2, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Anne of Geierstein; or, The Maiden of the Mist. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Co., […]; London: Simpkin and Marshall, […], page 78

King Peter attributed his father's, King Alexander's, death to the fact that...he had not worn his steel-mesh bullet-proof shirt.

1976, J. Wheeler-Bennett, Friends, Enemies, & Sovereigns, V, 156

Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.

c. 1560, T. Phaer translating Vergil, Nyne Fyrst Books of the Eneidos, X

Prison my heart in thy steele bosomes warde.

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 133”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley

[T]he discoverie of the yron and steele mines.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] LVI.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, page 188

From their new dungeons at Chantilly, Aristocrats may hear the rustle of our new steel furnace there.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter VI, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 327

East Chicago, Ind., a smoky Lake Michigan steel town that isn't exactly famous for its esthetic splendor even when the sun shines.

1976 January 24, National Observer, 1, 1

To mix some Sugar of steel, or steel wine with the first glass.

1652, J. French, York-shire Spaw, X, 92

I have found a singular Virtue in Steel drops, præpared after my Mode.

1675, G. Harvey, Dis. of London, XXIV, 264

I...take some nasty steel drops, & may head has been bettr.

1713 February 17, Journal to Stella, Jonathan Swift, II, 622

The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.

1880, Mark Twain, letter

Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.

c. 1240, “Sawles Warde”, in The Cotton Homilies, section 253

Ile in to vrge his hatred more to Clarence, With lies well steeld with weighty arguments.

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i], line 148

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

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

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

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

But stil he was so steelde With heart so good, as victor he dead left them in the field.

1581, Homer, translated by A. Hall, 10 Bks. Iliades, VI 110

Giue me my heart...O giue it me lest thy hard heart do steele it, And being steeld, soft sighes can neuer graue it.The spelling has been modernized.

1593, 1896

Steel yourself, then, firmly to withstand attacks from the cruel and unfeeling.

1796, F. Burney, Camilla, II iv vi 370

The rich experience of a long life steeled in the victorious struggle with every unchristian element.

1882, F. W. Farrar, Early Days Christianity, II 380

Nay, a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside.

c. 1630, John Donne, Sermons, VI 289

She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.

1657, J. Hall, translated by J. Cooke, Cures, section 117

Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.

1746, Exmoor Scolding, 3rd edition, II 14

And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.

1807, William Wordsworth, Sonn. to Liberty, II v

By passing an electric current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much hastened.

1853, Jrnl. Franklin Inst., CXXV 303

It seems evident that by the beginning of the 10th century B.C. blacksmiths were intentionally steeling iron.

1977 Oct, Scientific American, 127 1

My large dry-point,...called Two Stumps of Driftwood, gave 1000 copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing.

1880, P. G. Hamerton, Etching & Etchers, 3rd edition, section 342

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.

1862, Havelock Ellis, The Criminal, page 162

He said he had been in the “steel” (Coldbath Fields Prison) eight times.

1866, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar, volume 16, page 507

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 brigh (pocket).

1879, Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, page 502