Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Steel trap   /stil træp/   Listen
noun
Steel  n.  
1.
(Metal) A variety of iron intermediate in composition and properties between wrought iron and cast iron (containing between one half of one per cent and one and a half per cent of carbon), and consisting of an alloy of iron with an iron carbide. Steel, unlike wrought iron, can be tempered, and retains magnetism. Its malleability decreases, and fusibility increases, with an increase in carbon.
2.
An instrument or implement made of steel; as:
(a)
A weapon, as a sword, dagger, etc. "Brave Macbeth... with his brandished steel." "While doubting thus he stood, Received the steel bathed in his brother's blood."
(b)
An instrument of steel (usually a round rod) for sharpening knives.
(c)
A piece of steel for striking sparks from flint.
3.
Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor. "Heads of steel." "Manhood's heart of steel."
4.
(Med.) A chalybeate medicine. Note: Steel is often used in the formation of compounds, generally of obvious meaning; as, steel-clad, steel-girt, steel-hearted, steel-plated, steel-pointed, etc.
Bessemer steel (Metal.) See in the Vocabulary.
Blister steel. (Metal.) See under Blister.
Cast steel (Metal.), a fine variety of steel, originally made by smelting blister or cementation steel; hence, ordinarily, steel of any process of production when remelted and cast.
Chrome steel, Chromium steel (Metal.), a hard, tenacious variety containing a little chromium, and somewhat resembling tungsten steel.
Mild steel (Metal.), a kind of steel having a lower proportion of carbon than ordinary steel, rendering it softer and more malleable.
Puddled steel (Metal.), a variety of steel produced from cast iron by the puddling process.
Steel duck (Zool.), the goosander, or merganser. (Prov. Eng.)
Steel mill.
(a)
(Firearms) See Wheel lock, under Wheel.
(b)
A mill which has steel grinding surfaces.
(c)
A mill where steel is manufactured.
Steel trap, a trap for catching wild animals. It consists of two iron jaws, which close by means of a powerful steel spring when the animal disturbs the catch, or tongue, by which they are kept open.
Steel wine, wine, usually sherry, in which steel filings have been placed for a considerable time, used as a medicine.
Tincture of steel (Med.), an alcoholic solution of the chloride of iron.
Tungsten steel (Metal.), a variety of steel containing a small amount of tungsten, and noted for its tenacity and hardness, as well as for its malleability and tempering qualities. It is also noted for its magnetic properties.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Steel trap" Quotes from Famous Books



... like a steel trap; his eyes had a glint in them. He seemed to be unwilling to speak; when words came, they were cold ...
— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy
... That Garry should help along anything that he took an interest in was quite in the line of his ambition and ability. Minott was as "smart as a steel trap," Holker Morris had always said of him, "and a wonderful fellow among the men. He can get anything out of them; he would really make a good politician. His handling of the Corn Exchange ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith
... along the creek, the wise old Owl concluded from the fox signs he had already seen, and from the condition of the soil on a cut bank, that it was a desirable place in which to set a steel trap for foxes. Laying aside his kit, he put on his trapping mits, to prevent any trace of man-smell being left about the trap, and with the aid of his trowel he dug into the bank a horizontal hole about two feet deep and about a foot in diameter. ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... brink—these were among the varied items of the hungry otters' food. Life was indeed hard to maintain. And, to crown the misfortunes of the ice-bound winter, Lutra's matrimonial affairs were once more cruelly disturbed: her mate was caught in a steel trap that Ned the blacksmith had baited and laid in the meadows near the village bridge. He had marked the otters' wanderings by their footprints in the snow, and had ...
— Creatures of the Night - A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain • Alfred W. Rees
... female opened her lips, some as a steel trap would open sudden and kinder sharp, and sez she: "I am Miss Deacon Tutt, of Tuttville, and this is my second daughter Ardelia. Cordelia is my oldest, and I have 4 younger ...
— Samantha at Saratoga • Marietta Holley
... strong as a fireproof safe and keep it in the kitchen at night. The method I speak of is not always a bright and satisfying success, and yet there are so many little articles of vertu about a kitchen, that if you fail on the coop you can generally bring away something else. I brought away a nice steel trap one night, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... togedder, an' I gits sleepy, an' ef yer wants to put me to sleep jis' put a book in my han'. But wen it comes to gittin' out a stan' ob cotton, an' plantin' corn, I'se dere all de time. But dat gran'son ob mine is smart as a steel trap. I specs ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper
... rug in the middle of the floor to expose a massive steel trap door. This he unlocked by twirling the dial of a complicated mechanism. Some years before Tom had constructed beneath his laboratory an impregnable chamber to safeguard his secret plans. He called it his Chest of Secrets, and ...
— Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope • Victor Appleton
... playing with a steel trap got his tail cut off. He went back the next day to get his tail, when he got his foot cut off. "Now," he said, "I will go back and get both my foot and my tail." He went back, and the third time he got his head cut off, which ended ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens
... shruggingly that it was an easy death. It may be easy compared with some of the other deaths imposed on his furry captives. But it's not my idea of bliss, drowning under a foot or two of ice with a steel trap mangling your ankle for ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer


Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com