One way to hold this word: picture a sheet of steel and everything you know about it at once — it does not bend, it does not warm up, and it is a cold grey. `Steely` is what happens when you lay that whole picture over something else. Lay it over a person's will and you get determination nothing can wear down. Lay it over their eyes and you get a look that will not move. Lay it over the sky and you get that cold grey. The metal is the same in each case; only the thing it is pressed onto changes.
From the word’s history
Wiktionary records steely as steel + the adjective ending -y, so the word is literally having to do with steel. That is why the material and the character meanings live in one word: the ending simply hands steel's properties over to whatever the adjective describes.
Wiktionary 的字源說明指出，steely 就是 steel（鋼）加上形容詞字尾 -y，字面上是「跟鋼有關的」。這正好解釋了為什麼材質和性格會住在同一個字裡：-y 的作用就是把鋼的性質交給它所形容的那個東西。
Wiktionary entry `steely` (adj), etymology text supplied in evidence packet: From steel + -y.
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