Definition of "steel" []

• A generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, often with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired alloy properties, and widely used as a structural material. (noun)
• Something, such as a sword, that is made of steel. (noun)
• A quality suggestive of this alloy, especially a hard, unflinching character. (noun)
• Steel gray. (noun)
• Made with, relating to, or consisting of steel: steel beams; the steel industry; a bicycle with a steel frame. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The "northern iron" of (Jeremiah 15: 12) is believed more nearly to correspond to what we call steel"
• "It is also not impossible that artists may have already invented what we call steel pens."
• "He could not say that imperial overstretch in Iraq inflicted lasting damage on our soldiers and our military infrastructure -- what he called the steel in our ship of state -- and that our standing has been diminished in the eyes of the world."