Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Made of steel.
  • adjective Resembling steel, as in color or hardness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of steel; made of steel.
  • Resembling steel in some of its essential properties; hard; firm; stubborn.
  • Resembling steel in color, metallic luster, or general appearance; having more or less imperfectly the qualities or composition of steel: as, steely iron.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Made of steel; consisting of steel.
  • adjective Resembling steel; hard; firm; having the color of steel.
  • adjective a compound of iron containing less than one half of one per cent of carbon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having qualities resembling those of steel, especially hard and resolute.
  • adjective Made of steel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resembling steel in hardness
  • adjective resembling steel as in hardness

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Hardly had Jawamard made an end of his verses when there came out upon him from among the trees a horseman of terrible mien covered and clad in steely sheen, who cried out to him, saying,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Joseph Small, pilot of the Bronco OV 10 plane that crashed as it returned from a mission, watched in steely silence.

    Spellacy, David 1991

  • It is hard to imagine four more successful, intelligent, and tough - or to use the press description, 'steely' - women than Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford, Elizabeth Edwards, and Silda Spitzer.

    Ruth Bettelheim: "Victims" of Infidelity? 2009

  • It is hard to imagine four more successful, intelligent, and tough - or to use the press description, 'steely' - women than Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford, Elizabeth Edwards, and Silda Spitzer.

    Ruth Bettelheim: "Victims" of Infidelity? 2009

  • It is hard to imagine four more successful, intelligent, and tough - or to use the press description, 'steely' - women than Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford, Elizabeth Edwards, and Silda Spitzer.

    Ruth Bettelheim: "Victims" of Infidelity? 2009

  • It is hard to imagine four more successful, intelligent, and tough - or to use the press description, 'steely' - women than Hillary Clinton, Jenny Sanford,

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Ruth Bettelheim 2009

  • al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed in Yemen, Mr Obama said, his jaw clenched in an expression of steely resolve that was familiar from the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's demise at the start of May.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Toby Harnden 2011

  • Katie set her jaw, and her expression grew steely.

    mostly good girls Leila Sales 2010

  • Katie set her jaw, and her expression grew steely.

    mostly good girls Leila Sales 2010

  • Katie set her jaw, and her expression grew steely.

    mostly good girls Leila Sales 2010

Comments

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  • "'I am as serious as the grave,' Bill said, and he sounded so steely, I made a major effort to change my attitude. -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris

    February 5, 2011