pedal steel

noun

variants or pedal steel guitar

plural pedal steels or pedal steel guitars

: a box-shaped electric steel guitar with legs that has usually 10 strings which can be altered in pitch by the use of pedals and which are plucked while being pressed with a movable steel bar

[Ben] Keith broke into the business playing pedal steel on Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" …

—Kevin Dettmar

compare hawaiian guitar, lap steel

Examples of pedal steel in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Burnett praised the band's hall-of-farmers like pedal steel guitarist Paul Franklin and Grammy winners like bass player Dennis Crouch for playing songs inspired more by the feel of the vocal than the notes on the page. —Marcus K. Dowling, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025

The Hard Rock Stage in front of 1st and Broadway's Hard Rock Cafe: Chandler Walters (June 6, 4:53 p.m.) is a singer-songwriter and currently the pedal steel guitarist in Post Malone's live band. —Joyce Orlando, Nashville Tennessean, 5 June 2025

His excellent band can walk a squall of droning guitars and pedal steel into an abrupt stop, hover a second, then surge forward as one, without sounding rehearsed. —Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025

Expanding his creativity, the release blends classic sounds of the mandolin, pedal steel and fiddle. —Andrea Zarczynski, Forbes.com, 28 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for pedal steel

• afebrile
• bookmobile
• cochineal
• nonideal
• peroneal
• philomel
• popliteal
• snowmobile
• waterwheel
• abele
• alkyl
• anneal