steel vs steal
Definitions
verb
- cover, plate, or edge with steel
- get ready for something difficult or unpleasant
noun
- an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range
- knife sharpener consisting of a ridged steel rod
- a cutting or thrusting weapon that has a long metal blade and a hilt with a hand guard
Examples
The pain in his side was crushing, as if there was a steel hand in there relentlessly closing on an organ.
My poor Lirriper was a handsome figure of a man, with a beaming eye and a voice as mellow as a musical instrument made of honey and steel, but he had ever been a free liver being in the commercial travelling line and travelling what he called a limekiln road — “a dry road, Emma my dear,” my poor Lirriper says to me, “where I have to lay the dust with one drink or another all day long and half the night, and it wears me Emma” — and this led to his running through a good deal and might have run through the turnpike too when that dreadful horse that never would stand still for a single instant set off, but for its being night and the gate shut and consequently took his wheel, my poor Lirriper and the gig smashed to atoms and never spoke afterwards.
Considering his height, then the steely look and his rough voice, both of which reminded me a lot of Carey, he was a rather intimidating person, even to me.
Definitions
verb
- steal a base
- move stealthily
- take without the owner's consent
noun
- an advantageous purchase
- a stolen base; an instance in which a base runner advances safely during the delivery of a pitch (without the help of a hit or walk or passed ball or wild pitch)
Examples
Stealing away, (whence, I suppose, the ironical phrase of trusty Trojan to this day,) like a thief — pretendedly indeed at the command of the gods; but could that be, when the errand he went upon was to rob other princes, not only of their dominions, but of their lives? —
There are but three ways of living: by working, by stealing, or by begging.
He's come back to scrounge a meal and a bed, and he'll be off with what he's managed to steal before daybreak.
