v. [f. STEEL sb. + -(I)FY.]
† 1. trans. To add steel to, imbue with the properties of steel. Obs.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 227. In the mean time, very many Clisters of Whey steelified,… were injected, and all in vain.
2. To convert into steel.
1807. G. Gregory, Dict. Arts & Sci., I. 344/3. Cast iron contains too great a quantity of carbonaceous substance: it may be called steel too much steelified.
1860. Repert. Patent Invent., April, 305. A … Process for Cementing, Converting, Refining, Strengthening and Steelifying Iron.
1888. Jrnl. Frankl. Inst., CXXV. 304. Another process for the formation of steel from iron consists in connecting the mass to be steelified with an electric source.
Hence Steelified ppl. a.; Steelifying vbl. sb. (also attrib.); Steelifying ppl. a.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 262. The time occupied in this steelifying process, is sometimes only minutes instead of hours and days.
1860. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), III. 761. The workman has to judge … of the amount of carbon which he has retained from the pig iron;… if too little, he obtains only a steelified iron.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2365/2. The substitution of phosphorus for carbon as a ‘steelifying agent.’
