Word.ws English Dictionary

steel

/stiːl/

steel noun: an artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.

steel: an artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used...
Image: Stahl-Zentrum/ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

steel (countable and uncountable, plural steels)

  1. An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
    • Ocearium stæli.c. 725, Corpus Gloss., published 1431
    • Accearium steeli.c. 825, Epinal Gloss., section 49
  2. 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.c. 1250, The Owl & the Nightengale, published 1030
    • 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.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  3. A piece used for striking sparks from flint or ferrocerium.
    • Of ston mid stel in ðe tunder wel to brennen one ðis wunder.c. 1220, Bestiary, section 535
    • The Cock falling with its wonted violence upon the Steel.1660, Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-mechanicall, XIV 89
  4. Armor.
    • Þai gun hem boþe armi In iren and stiel þat tide.c. 1330, Sir Tristrem, L 3324
    • In compleate steele.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  5. A honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades.
    • The steill to scherp the schawing jrne.1541 in 1844, J. Stuart, Extracts of the Council Register of Aberdeen, I 176
    • 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, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones...1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC
  6. 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?1608, G. Markham et al., Dumbe Knight, section I
    • I suppose the bullet must have struck the steels in my corsets.1904 February 22, Daily Chron, 5 4
  7. (dialectal) A flat iron.
    • One of them having occasion to use a Steele, smoothing Iron, or some such kinde of Laundry Instrument.1638, J. Taylor, Bull, Beare, & Horse, C5
  8. (dialectal) A sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus.
    • The threaded steel...Flies swiftly.1785, William Cowper, Task, IV 165
  9. 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.1887 June 11, Athenæum, 779 1
  10. Projectiles.
    • The crews at the port batteries were pumping steel at the enemy.1898 June 1, Westminster Gazette, 5 1
  11. A fringe of beads or decoration of this metal.
    • A trailing skirt embroidered in what is termed fine steel.1899 January 26, Daily News, 6 3
  12. A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (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.1649, H. Hammond, Christians Obligations, X 253
    • Steel is not so good as Iron for Medicinal Operation.1704, J. Harris, Lexicon Technicum, volume L
  2. (uncountable, colors) The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
    • 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, →OCLC
  3. (figuratively) Extreme hardness or resilience.

Adjective

steel (not comparable)

  1. Made of steel.
    • 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...
  2. Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
    • Wher neuer cessing soyle doth steelebright stuff send out from mines.c. 1560, Vergil, translated by T. Phaer, Nyne Fyrst Books of the Eneidos, section 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, →OCLC
  3. Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
    • [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....
    • 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, […], →OCLC, book V (Terror the Order of the Day), page 327
  4. (obsolete) Containing steel.
    • 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
  5. Engraved on steel.
    • The best picture I have had yet is the steel frontis-piece to my new book.1880, Mark Twain, letter

Verb

steel (third-person singular simple present steels, present participle steeling, simple past and past participle steeled)

  1. (literally, transitive) To edge, cover, or point with steel.
    • Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.c. 1240, “Sawles Warde”, in The Cotton Homilies, section 253
    • 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
  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.c. 1630, John Donne, Sermons, VI 289
  3. (literally, obsolete, transitive) To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.
    • She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.1657, J. Hall, translated by J. Cooke, Cures, section 117
  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.1880, P. G. Hamerton, Etching & Etchers, 3rd edition, section 342
  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.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
  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.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.1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC
  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.1807, William Wordsworth, Sonn. to Liberty, II v
  9. (dialectal, transitive) To press with a flat iron.
    • Tha hasn't tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.1746, Exmoor Scolding, 3rd edition, II 14

Proper noun (1)

steel

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang, transitive, crime) 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.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

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Steel

Steel

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Steel

the Steel

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

steel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

steel in Hindi

metal produced from iron
इस्पात ispāt, फ़ूलाद fūlād, फ़ौलाद faulād

steel in Tamil

metal produced from iron
எஃகு eḥku, உருக்கு urukku

steel in Marathi

metal produced from iron
पोलाद polād

steel in Urdu

metal produced from iron
اِسْپات ispāt, فَولاد faulād, فُولاد fūlād
More languagesFewer languages
steel in Bengali
ইস্পাত iśpat
steel in Telugu
ఉక్కు ukku
steel in Malayalam
ഉരുക്ക് urukkŭ
steel in Kannada
ಉಕ್ಕು ukku
steel in Punjabi
ਫੁਲਾਦ phulād, ਇਸਪਾਤ isapāt, سریا sariyā
steel in Gujarati
પોલાદ polād
steel in Odia
ଇସ୍ପାତ, ଷ୍ଟିଲ୍
steel in Sanskrit
पिण्ड píṇḍa
steel in Assamese
ইস্পাত ispat, তীখা tikha
steel in Nepali
इस्पात, स्टिल, स्टील
steel in Tagalog
paslip, asero, patalim
steel in Arabic
فُولَاذ fūlāḏ
steel in Malay
keluli, baja, besi baja, besi waja
steel in Indonesian
baja
steel in Persian
فولاد fulâd, پولاد pulâd
steel in Thai
เหล็ก lèk, เหล็กกล้า lèk-glâa
steel in Vietnamese
thép
steel in Myanmar
သံမဏိ samma.ni.
Dhivehi
އެކަތަ ekata

Examples of steel in a sentence

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

All 40 example sentences with steel

Synonyms of steel

All synonyms of steel

Forms of steel

Noun
pluralsteels
alternative form (obsolete)steele
Verb
third-person singular presentsteels
present participlesteeling
past participlesteeled
paststeeled

Plural of steel: steels

Origin of steel

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.

From French Bastille (a French prison).

From Bastille.

Words formed from steel

Phrases with steel

79 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with steel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about steel

What does steel mean?
Steel means an artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
What is steel in Hindi?
Steel in Hindi is इस्पात (ispāt), फ़ूलाद (fūlād), फ़ौलाद (faulād). See Steel meaning in Hindi.
How do you use steel in a sentence?
Employeng the steell of his swerd the most best wyse that in hym was possible.
What part of speech is steel?
Steel can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce steel?
Steel is pronounced /stiːl/.
What is the plural of steel?
The plural of steel is steels.

Words near steel in the dictionary

  1. steeked
  2. steekgras
  3. steeking
  4. steekkan
  5. steeks
  6. steel
  7. steel band
  8. steel bands
  9. steel beach parties
  10. steel beach party
  11. steel beach picnic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: steel (page history and authors); Steel (page history and authors); سریا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); steel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); पिण्ड (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ইস্পাত (Assamese) (page history and authors); steel (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “steel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.