Search the Dictionary

which anything is composed, or that which it contains; as, a throne of gold; a sword of steel; a wreath of mist; a cup of water.

Palm leaves, prepared for being written upon with a style pointed with steel. [Written also ola.] Balfour (Cyc. of India).

lf. It was well worth one's while. Hawthorne. Against this sort of condemnation one must steel one's self as one best can. G. Eliot.

e; esp., a kind of reverberatory furnace in which the fuel is gas, used in manufacturing steel. -- Open-hearth process (Steel Manuf.), a process by which melted cast iron is converted into steel by the addition of wrought iron, or iron ore and manganese, and by exposure to heat in an open-hearth furnace; -- also calle…

A breastplate for a breast drill. Palette knife, a knife with a very flexible steel blade and no cutting edge, rounded at the end, used by painters to mix colors on the grinding slab or palette. -- To set the palette (Paint.), to lay upon it the required pigments in a certain order, according to the intended use of th…

A framework of steel or whalebone, worn by women to expand their dresses; a kind of bustle.

ssablein boats. His body's a passable carcass if it be not hurt; it is a throughfare for steel. Shak.

The sliding weight on a steelyard. [Written also pee.]

a reed, or of the quill of a goose or other bird, but now also of other materials, as of steel, gold, etc. Also, originally, a stylus or other instrument for scratching or graving. Graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock. Job xix. 24.

A reverberatory furnace with a circular revolving hearth, -- used in making steel.

ht. [Written also photoglyptic.] Photoglyphic engraving, a process of etching on copper, steel, or zinc, by means of the action of light and certain chemicals, so that from the plate impressions may be taken. Sir D. Brewster.

tween dark brown and light blue in the table of colors in drawing the temper of hardened steel.

A foot soldier's weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet.

To become hollow in the process of solodifying; -- said of an ingot, as of steel.

soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc. Objective plane (Surv.), the horizont…

e by Shakespeare to designate plants in general, or anything that is planted. As true as steel, as plantage to the moon. Shak. (Troil. iii. sc. 2).

of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate.

A coating or defensive armor of metal (usually steel) plates.

A small stick or rod of steel, formerly used in adjusting the plaits of ruffs. Shak.

e smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface; as, steel polishes well. Bacon.