Dictionary

steel magnolia en · NOUN

Etymology

* Combining the contrasting images of steel, a hard metal, and magnolia, a flower.

Meanings

1. (Southern-US) A woman, unashamed, who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.
   • Ms. Deen is an irresistible example of that extraordinary phenomenon of Southern womanhood, the steel magnolia. She is always appealing and gracious but possessed of an unfailing survival instinct — a necessary character trait for a Southern cook to make it. 1998, John Berendt (introduction), The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, Random House, Inc., →ISBN, page xv:
   • "That's how Candy refers to herself to make the vamps think she's just a little Southern belle." "When she's really a steel magnolia?" 2009, Nancy Haddock, Last Vampire Standing, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 111:
   • Reporters called Nancy Reagan an iron butterfly and Rosalind^([sic]) Carter a steel magnolia. 1983, Roland Bartel, Metaphors and symbols: Forays into Language, National Council of Teachers of English, →ISBN, page 48:

Forms