steel

1. 1.

   get ready for something difficult or unpleasant

   Synonymsnerve

   Broaderbrace
2. 2.

   cover, plate, or edge with steel

   Broadercover

Other forms of steel

plural

steels·

past tense

steeled·

present participle

steeling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about steel

What does steel mean?

steel means "an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in steel?

steel has 1 syllable: steel. In IPA it is /ˈstil/.

What is another word for steel?

Close synonyms include sword, blade, brand, nerve. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is steel a common word?

steel is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with steel?

2 words rhyme with steel. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.