stainless steel

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stainless steel (countable and uncountable, plural stainless steels)

2. Any of a class of steels that resist corrosion; they are all alloys of iron, chromium, and carbon, and most also contain certain other elements as well (such as molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, or others).

   Synonyms: SS, stainless (ellipsis); inox (attributive)

   Hypernyms: alloy steel < steel < metal < material

   Coordinate term: carbon steel

   Near-synonym: CRES (broadly synonymous)

   • 1955 April, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 261:

     Equally I can stand in a station like Lucerne in Switzerland, and watch with ill-concealed admiration the majestic entry of one of the latest Gotthard "Ae 6/6" electrics, packing 6,000 horsepower within its 60 ft. of length and 121 tons of weight, with its sleek dark green sides and handsome stainless steel bands and front wings.

   • 2024 January 26, Madeline Holcombe and Sandee LaMotte, “Stanley and other drink cups contain lead. Should you be worried?”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Lead is used as part of the tumbler’s vacuum insulation and is covered by a stainless steel layer that protects consumers from lead exposure, according to the Stanley cup manufacturer, Pacific Market International.

The adjectives stainless, inoxidizable, and rustproof with reference to stainless steels are used notionally and hyperbolically (rather than literally) but are nonetheless conventional and established (the idiomatic norm).

• stainless steel soap