Steely means hard, cold and determined. A steely gaze, steely determination, steely and unmoved.
It belongs to looks and to resolve, and it is admiring, since steely determination is what wins things. Of a colour it means the grey-blue of polished metal.
1adjectivesteelyHard, cold and determined.
“She gave the noisy student a steely look, and the room went quiet.”
steely is a quality.
Proto-Indo-European
*stak- — to stay, to be firm
Proto-Germanic
*stahlą
Proto-West Germanic
*stahlī — something made of steel
Old English
stīele
Middle English
stele
English
steel
English, today
steely
Built from
From steel + -y. steel comes from Middle English stele, stel, from Old English stīele, from Proto-West Germanic stahlī (“something made of steel”), enlargement of stahl (“steel”), from Proto-Germanic stahlą, from stah- or stag- (“to be firm, rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European stak- (“to stay, to be firm”). Compare Scots stele, yol stehli, German Stahl, Dutch staal, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stål.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA