steel magnolia
steel magnolia noun: a woman, unashamed, who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.
Noun
steel magnolia (plural steel magnolias)
- A woman, unashamed, who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.
- Reporters called Nancy Reagan an iron butterfly and Rosalind^([sic]) Carter a steel magnolia.1983, Roland Bartel, Metaphors and symbols: Forays into Language, National Council of Teachers of English, →ISBN, page 48
- Ms. Deen is an irresistible example of that extraordinary phenomenon of Southern womanhood, the steel magnolia. She is always appealing and gracious but possessed of an unfailing survival instinct — a necessary character trait for a Southern cook to make it.1998, John Berendt (introduction), The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, Random House, Inc., →ISBN, page xv
Forms of steel magnolia
| plural | steel magnolias |
|---|
Origin of steel magnolia
* Combining the contrasting images of steel, a hard metal, and magnolia, a flower.
Questions about steel magnolia
- What does steel magnolia mean?
- Steel magnolia means a woman, unashamed, who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.
- What part of speech is steel magnolia?
- Steel magnolia is a noun.
- What is the plural of steel magnolia?
- The plural of steel magnolia is steel magnolias.
Words near steel magnolia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: steel magnolia (page history and authors). 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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