steelily

English

Etymology

From steely +‎ -ly.

Adverb

steelily (comparative more steelily, superlative most steelily)

1. In a steely way.
   • 1867, Gabrielle Lee, “Cash or Barter”, in Peterson's Magazine, volume 51, page 201:

     My aunt looked at her daughter; brilliant of complexion, coldly and steelily handsome at eighteen—why should she not have admirers?

   • 1998, Charles Nicholl, The Fruit Palace, page 134:

     'Meat,' he said steelily. 'I was right. It was a bloody butcher's knife that bastard tried to rearrange me with.'

   • 2016, Anne Fogarty, Chapter 1: ‘A World of Hotels and Gaols’, Paige Reynolds (editor), Modernist Afterlives in Irish Literature and Culture, Wimbledon Publishing Company (Anthem Press), page 19,

     As she steelily lives through the death of Christy, she recognizes that she herself now moves irretrievably 'in a world of hotels and gaols' (145).