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steel wool

American

noun

a tangled or matted mass of stringlike steel shavings, used for scouring, polishing, smoothing, etc.

steel wool British

noun

a tangled or woven mass of fine steel fibres, used for cleaning or polishing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of steel wool

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

steel wool

Maintenance is straightforward: The pan is dishwasher safe, metal utensil-friendly and can handle steel wool.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

“Any other steel wool will scratch and etch into glass and other surfaces.”

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024

His Jewish Cuban father owned a steel wool factory; his mother, a Jewish Romanian, narrowly survived the Holocaust when her family caught one of the last ships to Cuba.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2024

Shards of steel wool can break off and become lodged in the grain lines.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 22, 2022

Knuckles and fingertips raw from hot water and steel wool.

From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023