From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Steel \Steel\ (st[=e]l), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Steeled} (st[=e]ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Steeling}.] [AS. st[=y]lan: cf. Icel. st[ae]la. See {Steel}, noun]
1. To overlay, point, or edge with steel; as, to steel a razor; to steel an ax.
2. Fig.: To make hard or strong; hence, to make insensible or obdurate.
Lies well steeled with weighty arguments. --Shak.
O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts. --Shak.
Why will you fight against so sweet a passion, And steel your heart to such a world of charms? --Addison.
3. Fig.: To cause to resemble steel, as in smoothness, polish, or other qualities.
These waters, steeled By breezeless air to smoothest polish. --Wordsworth.
4. (Elec.) To cover, as an electrotype plate, with a thin layer of iron by electrolysis. The iron thus deposited is very hard, like steel.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "steeled": Philistine, backed, calcified, callous, calloused, case-hardened, crusted, crusty, crystallized, flinty, fossilized, granulated, hard, hardened, hardhearted, hornified, impervious, incrusted, indurate, indurated, insensitive, inured, lapidified, ossified, pachydermatous, petrified, proof against, reinforced, rigidified, sclerotic, set, solidified, steeled against, steely, stiffened, stony, strengthened, thick-skinned, toughened, vitrified
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