steeling

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
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

See all 32 meanings of steel