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an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range

cover, plate, or edge with steel

an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range

A variety of iron intermediate in composition and properties between wrought iron and cast iron (containing between one half of one per cent and one and a half per cent of carbon), and consisting of an alloy of iron with an iron carbide. Steel, unlike wrought iron, can be tempered, and retains magnetism. Its malleability decreases, and fusibility increases, with an increase in carbon.

An instrument or implement made of steel

A weapon, as a sword, dagger, etc.

An instrument of steel (usually a round rod) for sharpening knives.

A piece of steel for striking sparks from flint.

Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor.

To overlay, point, or edge with steel; as, to steel a razor; to steel an ax.

To make hard or strong; hence, to make insensible or obdurate.

Fig.: To cause to resemble steel, as in smoothness, polish, or other qualities.

To cover, as an electrotype plate, with a thin layer of iron by electrolysis. The iron thus deposited is very hard, like steel.

A tough, malleable, iron-based alloy containing up to, but no more than, two percent carbon and often other metals. It is used in medicine and dentistry in implants and instrumentation.

A variety of iron refined and combined with a small portion of carbon, very tough, hard, and elastic; any instrument or weapon made of steel.

Made of, or like, steel; hence, hard; unfeeling.

To overlay, edge, or tip with steel; make hard, strong, or unfeeling; as, to steel one's heart.

An alloy of iron, usually with carbon (1/4 to 3 per cent.); in medicine, iron or ferrum.

Metal from which many surgical instruments are made.

Any instrument of steel: an instrument of steel for sharpening knives on: extreme hardness: a chalybeate medicine: iron combined with a small portion of carbon. Steel usually contains also small quantities of silicon, phosphorus, manganese, and sulphur, but iron and carbon appear to be its only essential constituents. The relative proportions of iron and carbon vary in steel of different qualities; but in that used for ordinary purposes the carbon amounts from about 0.5 to 1.5 per cent, the toughness, tenacity, and hardness increasing with the increase of the carbon, the elasticity diminishing as the hardness increases, and vice versa. At a red heat steel is malleable and may be welded. The color is a bright grayish white, the texture closely granular, the specific gravity varying from 7.62 to 7.81. Steel formed from bar-iron by cementation is called blistered steel, from its surface acquiring a blistered character in the process. When blistered steel is rolled or beaten down into bars, it is called shear-steel, and if it be melted, cast into ingots, and again rolled out into bars, it forms cast-steel. Natural or German steel is an impure and variable kind of steel procured from cast-iron, or obtained at once from the ore. The natural steel yielded by cast-iron, manufactured in the refining houses, is known by the general name of furnace steel, and that which has only been once treated with a refining furnace is particularly called rough steel. The peculiarity of steel, upon which its high value in the arts in a great measure depends, is its property of becoming hard after being heated to redness and then suddenly cooled by being plunged into cold water, and of being again softened down to any requisite degree by the application of a certain temperature. This process is called tempering. It is found that the higher the temperature to which steel is raised, and the more sudden the cooling, the greater is the hardness; and hence, any degree of hardness can be given to steel which is required for the various purposes to which it is applied. According to the degree of hardness to which steel is tempered it assumes various colors, and formerly these colors served as guides to the workman. Now, however, a thermometer, with a bath of mercury or oil, is employed, and the operation of tempering is performed with a much greater degree of certainty. The uses of steel in forming various kinds of instruments, edge-tools, springs, etc, are well known.

Made of steel.

To overlay or edge with steel: to harden: to make obdurate.

Iron combined with carbon; an instrument of steel; steel instrument for sharpening knives.

To overlay or edge with steel; to harden.

To cover with steel; plate with or furnish with steel.

To make hard or unyielding.

Made or composed of steel; hence, hard; obdurate.

A compound of iron (chiefly with carbon) very strong, tough, and elastic.

Something made of steel.

Made of steel; like steel.

Iron combined with from 1/3 to 1 1/3 percent, of carbon, extensively used in making instruments, and especially edged tools; any instrument of steel; a weapon of war; extreme hardness.

To overlay, point, or edge with steel; to harden; to make insensible or obdurate.

Iron refined and combined with carbon, used in making edge-tools, &c.; weapons made of steel, as swords; an instr. used by butchers and others for sharpening their knives.

To point or overlay with steel; to make very hard; to make insensible or obdurate.

A form of iron containing 0.6 to 1.9 per cent, of carbon susceptible of being tempered by exposure to heat and a subsequent cooling in water, oil, lead, mercury, etc.

As sometimes used in Great Britain, any medicinal preparation of iron.

n. [Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, German] Iron combined with a small portion of carbon-used in making instruments ;-hence, an instrument made of steel, as a sword, knife, or the like ;-specifically, an instrument of steel for sharpening knives upon ;- hardness; sternness ; rigour.