Steelback
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Alicant, a Spanish wine obsolete, uncountable
"Onely the Portugal inhabitants, in their townes and cities (being many and great) doe make a kinde of wine of dryed grapes or raysins of the sunne, for relish and operation the best (I thinike) in the world, not inferiour to the Spanish nectar, el vino de San Martin, being pleasant, strong, and cordiall, called raysin wine, almost of the colour of Alicant or steelebacke*; which (thankes to our honourable masters) wee were seldome without[…] * A name given to Alicant wine, which was supposed to strengthen the back."
Example
More examples"Onely the Portugal inhabitants, in their townes and cities (being many and great) doe make a kinde of wine of dryed grapes or raysins of the sunne, for relish and operation the best (I thinike) in the world, not inferiour to the Spanish nectar, el vino de San Martin, being pleasant, strong, and cordiall, called raysin wine, almost of the colour of Alicant or steelebacke*; which (thankes to our honourable masters) wee were seldome without[…] * A name given to Alicant wine, which was supposed to strengthen the back."
Etymology
From steel (“to harden; to strengthen”) + back.
More for "steelback"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.