steel

Meanings

Noun

• An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
• Any item made of this metal, particularly including:
• Medicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.
• Varieties of this metal.
• The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
• Extreme hardness or resilience.

Adjective

• Made of steel.
• Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
• Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
• Containing steel.
• Engraved on steel.

Verb

• To edge, cover, or point with steel.
• To harden or strengthen; to nerve or make obdurate; to fortify against.
• To back with steel.
• To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.
• To press with a flat iron.
• To cause to resemble steel in appearance.
• To steelify; to turn iron into steel.
• To electroplate an item, particularly an engraving plate, with a layer of iron.
• To sharpen with a honing steel.

Proper Noun

• Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.

Origin

• From Middle English stel, stele, from Old English stīele, from Proto-Germanic *stahliją ("something made of steel"), enlargement of *stahlą, from Proto-Germanic *stah- or *stag-, from Proto-Indo-European *stak- ("to stay, to be firm") (compare Umbrian stakaz ("upright, erected"), Avestan 𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 ("strong"), Sanskrit स्तकति ("resist, strike against")), related to Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- ("to stand").
• From French Bastille (a French prison).