unsteel

English

Etymology

un- +‎ steel

Verb

unsteel (third-person singular simple present unsteels, present participle unsteeling, simple past and past participle unsteeled)

1. (transitive) To disarm; to soften.
   • 1696, Nahum Tate, Nicholas Brady, A New Version of the Psalms of David‎^[1], London: The Company of Stationers, Psalm 89, Part 2, v. 43, p. 185:

     Thou hast his conqu’ring Sword unsteel’d,
     His Valour turn’d to shameful Flight.

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC, page 215:

     Why then should this enervating pity unsteel my foolish heart?

   • 1919, John Galsworthy, “The Sacred Work”, in Another Sheaf‎^[2], London: Heinemann, page 9:

     The more we drown the disabled in tea and lip gratitude the more we unsteel his soul, and the harder we make it for him to win through, when, in the years to come, the wells of our tea and gratitude have dried up.

Anagrams

• eluents, enlutes