A spring made of steel (see SPRING sb.1 22). Also transf. and fig.
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., xiv. 242. Two strong Steel Springs.
1855. Geo. Eliot, Ess. (1884), 194. All these natural muscles and fibres are to be torn away and replaced by a patent steel-spring, anxiety for the ‘glory of God.’
1899. Werner, Captain of Locusts, 3. Even as you looked, those wonderful steel-springs [a locust’s hind legs] would bend, and send the creature forward.
Hence Steel-spring v. trans., to fit with a steel spring.
1778. Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, IX. (ed. 2), 392. Some store the quiver, some steel-spring the bow.
