Also 3–5 stele, 6–7 steele. [f. STEEL sb.1 Cf. MHG. stæhelen (mod.G. stählen), ON. stǽla; also (without umlant) MLG. stâlen, Du. stalen.]
1. trans. To overlay, point or edge with steel. Often in passive to be (well) steeled.
[a. 900: see STEELED ppl. a.]
a. 1240. Sawles Warde, in Cott. Hom., 253. Hure þolien ant a beoren hare unirude duntes wið mealles istelet.
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 1248. A swerd … Þat wel i-steled and kene were.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 1043. Hys helme shal be wel steled.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, IV. 63. An arrow he out of his quiuer cought, Sure steelde at end with piercing head.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 215. Performed with a sharp cutting stone, and not with any knife of iron steeled.
1693. Lister, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 865. With a Guess at the way the Ancients used to Steel their Picks for the cutting or hewing of Porphyry.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 18. The Chissell or Piercer, was well steeled, with a drill Point.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. Plate xxxvii. The teeth are one foot in length … steeled at the point.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 220. It was the common notion … that the art of steeling tools in the highest degree of perfection was certainly lost to the moderns.
1864. G. L. M. Strauss, etc., Engl. Workshops, 93. The former process is technically termed steeling in the centre, the latter steeling on the face.
1911. J. Ward, Roman Era in Brit., xi. 195. The face of the hammer was ‘steeled’ by a plate of steel welded to it.
fig. 1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. i. 148. Ile in to vrge his hatred more to Clarence, With Lyes well steel’d with weighty Arguments.
1614. W. B., Philos. Banquet (ed. 2), 114. He euer steeled the forefront of his armie with men of hiest spirit and resolution.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. Golden-Grove, Summer, xix. 248. When God … draws aside his curtain, and shows his arsenal and his armory, full of arrows steeled with wrath.
† b. To back (a mirror) with steel. Obs.
1625. Donne, Serm. (1649), II. xxxiii. 302. Nay, a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkned on the backside.
1630. Massinger, Renegado, I. iii. Here is a mirror Steelde so exactely, neither taking from Nor flattering the obiect it returnes To the beholder.
c. To cover (an engraved metal plate) with a film of iron by electrolysis to render it more durable.
1880. Hamerton, Etching (ed. 3), 342, note. My large dry-point,… called Two Stumps of Driftwood, gave 1000 copies (after being steeled) without perceptible wearing.
1887. Ruskin, in Spielmann, Mem. (1900), 195. Now that everybody can … engrave the photograph, and steel the copper, and print piles and piles of the thing by steam.
2. To cause to resemble steel in some quality. a. fig. To make hard, unbending or strong as steel, to render insensible to impression, to make determined or obdurate, to nerve or strengthen; also to fortify against.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, VI. 110. But stil he was so steelde With heart so good, as victor he dead left them in the field.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 375, 376. Giue me my heart … O giue it me lest thy hard heart do steele it, And being steeld, soft sighes can neuer graue it.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 443. With this Position let us … steele our Resolves.
1720. Waterland, Eight Serm., 97. Let any Man … that … is not steel’d against Conviction, be left to draw the Conclusion.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, II. 370. Steel yourself, then, firmly to withstand attacks from the cruel and unfeeling.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Decay of Beggars. Is it possible I could have steeled my purse against him.
1826. Scott, Woodst., v. I … was steeled by honour against the charms of my friend’s Chloe.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 380. The rich experience of a long life steeled in the victorious struggle with every unchristian element.
1884. Leisure Hour, Sept., 545/2. The air and exercise had steeled my nerves completely.
b. To make like steel in appearance. rare.
1807. Wordsw., Sonn. Nat. Indep. & Liberty, II. v. And lo! those waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish, yield A vivid repetition of the stars.
† 3. To steel it: ? to use steel, strike with the sword. Obs. or nonce-use. (The sense is disputed.)
a. 1593. Marlowe, Edw. II., III. ii. 1333. We haue beene … Too kinde to them, but now haue drawne our sword, And if they send me not my Gaueston, Weele steele it on their crest, and powle their tops.
† 4. To impregnate (a liquid) with steel. Obs.
1657. J. Cooke, Hall’s Cures englisht, 117. She drunk her drink steeled, with which she was cured.
5. To convert (iron) into steel: = STEELIFY v.
1853. in Jrnl. Franklin Inst. (1888), CXXV. 303. By passing an electric current thus through the bars the operation of steeling is much hastened.
6. To sharpen (a knife) with the steel.
1888. Berksh. Gloss.
7. dial. To iron (clothes).
1746. Exmoor Scolding, 273. Tha hasn’t tha Sense to stile thy own Dressing.
1837. J. F. Palmer, Gloss. to Mrs. Palmer’s Devon Dial., 85.
