dead-melt

A form of deadmelt — To melt steel at high temperatures in order to deoxidize it.

Meanings

verbdead-melt (third-person singular simple present dead-melts, present participle dead-melting, simple past and past participle dead-melted)

present singular third person dead-melts · participle present dead-melting · participle past dead-melted · past dead-melted

  1. alternativeAlternative form of deadmelt.

    However, most producers either dead-melt their heats or oxygen-blow to burn silicon.

    1999, Transactions of the American Foundrymen's Society, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    ...but if cast immediately it is found that a much larger quantity of gas separates during solidification, rendering the steel porous, than is evolved if the metal is dead-melted, i.e., allowed to remain melted for an extra half hour or more, presumably from the reaction of the iron oxide interspersed throughout the steel upon the carbon evolving carbon oxide during the earlier period...

    1890, The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature, page 341

    A crucible-steel maker who knows his business can, and he will, always dead-melt his steel.

    1896, William Metcalf, Steel: A Manual for Steel Users, page 134
noundead-melt (plural dead-melts)

plural dead-melts

  1. alternativeAlternative form of deadmelt.

    From here to the finish there is practically a dead-melt in a reducing atmosphere.

    1911, Eugene Franz Roeber, Howard Coon Parmelee, Metallurgical & Chemical Engineering - Volume 9, page 273
    2 more examples

    ... thirdly, subjecting the molten metal, after the addition of carbon and silicon, to a dead-melt under a neutral flame until the silicon shall be oxidized to the required degree, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

    1881, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office

    It was his experience that it was advisable not to rely upon the deoxidising action of elements added at the end of the process, but to make certain of acquiring a satisfactory " dead-melt " in the furnace, and he had not obtained any appreciably better result from the addition of such elements as molybdenum and vanadium.

    1923, The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute - Issue 2, page 58
Cite this entry
APA

dead-melt. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead-melt

MLA

“dead-melt.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead-melt. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dead-melt,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dead-melt.

Source: dead-melt on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.