iron
See also: irón
English
A pot of molten raw iron.
Etymology
From Middle English iren, from Old English īsern, īsærn, īren, īsen, from Proto-West Germanic *īsarn, from Proto-Germanic *īsarną (“iron”), from Proto-Celtic *īsarnom (“iron”), a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”).
Pronunciation
The position of the element iron in the periodic table, and its structure.
| Chemical element | |
|---|---|
| Fe | |
| Previous: manganese (Mn) | |
| Next: cobalt (Co) | |
An electric clothes iron.
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈaɪ.ən/
- Homophone: ion
- (General American) enPR: ī'ərn, IPA(key): /ˈaɪ.ɚn/
- (dialectal) IPA(key): /ˈaɪ.ɹən/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)n
Noun
iron (countable and uncountable, plural irons)
- (uncountable) A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when untarnished, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel.
- (uncountable, physics, chemistry, metallurgy) A metallic chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.
- (uncountable, countable, metallurgy) Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.
- wrought iron, ductile iron, cast iron, pig iron, gray iron
- (countable) A tool or appliance made of metal, which is heated and then used to transfer heat to something else; most often a thick piece of metal fitted with a handle and having a flat, roughly triangular bottom, which is heated and used to press wrinkles from clothing, and now usually containing an electrical heating apparatus.
- (usually plural, irons) shackles.
- (slang) A firearm, either a long gun or a handgun.
- Synonym: shooting iron
- 1948, John Huston, Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
- Ah, throw that old iron over here! We'll pick it up and go on our way.
- 1959, Marty Robbins (lyrics and music), “Big Iron”:
- the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
- (uncountable) A dark shade of the color silver.
- (Cockney rhyming slang, shortened from iron hoof, rhyming with poof; countable, offensive) A male homosexual.
- (golf) A golf club used for middle-distance shots.
- 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major
- The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]
- 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major
- (uncountable, figurative) Used as a symbol of great strength or toughness, or to signify a very strong or tough material.
- a will of iron
- He appeared easygoing, but inside he was pure iron.
- (weightlifting) Weight used as resistance for the purpose of strength training.
- He lifts iron on the weekends.
- (countable, astronomy, geology) A meteorite consisting primarily of metallic iron (mixed with a small amount of nickel), as opposed to one composed mainly of stony material.
- Irons and stony irons can be much larger than stony meteorites and are much more visually striking, but make up only a few percent of all meteorites.
- A safety curtain in a theatre.
- (military, slang) dumb bombs, those without guidance systems.
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:iron.
Synonyms
- (metallic chemical element): ferrum
- (tool for pressing clothing): flatiron (old-fashioned), smoothing iron (old-fashioned), clothes iron
- (shackles): shackles
- (homosexual): poof, queer
- (strength or power): energy, force
Hypernyms
- (metallic chemical element): chemical element, metal; atom
- (tool for pressing clothing): tool, mechanical device
- (shackles): restraint
- (handgun): weapon
- (dark shade of silver): colour, color; shade; silver
- (strength or power): force, might, energy
Hyponyms
- (shackles): leg irons
- (golf club): driving iron, long iron, short iron, 1-iron, 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron, 5-iron, 6-iron, 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron,
- (strength or power): ironman
- (tool for pressing clothing): box iron, charcoal iron, clothes iron, flatiron
Meronyms
- (parts or members of metallic chemical element): electron, neutron, proton
Holonyms
- (metallic chemical element): molecule (sometimes)
Coordinate terms
- (tool for pressing clothing): clothes press, mangle
Derived terms
- alpha iron
- angle iron
- arsenical iron
- bar iron
- barking iron
- beak-iron
- beck-iron
- beta iron
- bick-iron
- big iron
- Bessemer iron
- black iron
- bog iron
- bog iron ore
- boom-iron
- box iron
- branding iron
- cast iron
- cast-iron
- chromate of iron
- chrome iron
- chrome iron ore
- chromic iron
- climbing iron
- copper-iron
- corrugated iron
- cramp-iron
- crimping iron
- crisping iron
- curling iron
- delta iron
- ductile iron
- electric iron
- epsilon iron
- fire iron
- flatiron
- fresh off the irons
- galvanised iron
- galvanized iron
- gamma iron
- grab iron
- grappling iron
- gray iron
- hair iron
- have too many irons in the fire
- in iron
- in irons
- iron-54
- iron-56
- iron-57
- iron-58
- Iron Age
- iron alum
- iron band
- ironbark
- iron-bind
- iron-binding
- iron bird
- iron-blue
- iron-blue fly
- iron bomb
- Ironbottom Sound
- ironbound
- Ironbridge
- iron buff
- iron carbide
- iron-cased
- iron cement
- iron chloride
- ironclad
- iron-clad
- iron clay
- iron cloth
- Iron County
- Iron Curtain
- iron curtain
- iron deficiency
- iron-deficient
- ironed
- iron fall
- iron flint
- iron-founder
- iron-founding
- iron foundry
- iron-free
- iron gang
- iron glance
- iron grass
- iron-gray
- iron-grey
- iron-handed
- iron-hard
- iron hat
- iron-headed
- ironheads
- ironheart
- iron-hearted
- iron hoof
- iron horse
- iron hydroxide
- iron(III) chloride
- iron(III) oxide
- iron iodide
- ironish
- ironless
- iron liquor
- iron loss
- iron maid
- iron maiden
- iron-maker
- iron-making
- iron man, ironman
- iron-manganese tungstate
- iron mask
- ironmaster
- iron meteorite
- iron mine
- iron-miner
- iron mining
- iron mold
- iron mould
- ironmonger
- ironmongery
- iron monticellite
- iron mountain
- Iron Mountain
- ironness
- iron ore
- iron oxide
- iron pan
- iron period
- iron phosphate
- iron-plated
- iron play
- iron player
- iron protoxide
- iron pyrites
- iron ration
- iron road
- iron salt
- iron sand, ironsand
- iron saw
- iron scale
- iron-shod
- ironshot, iron-shot
- iron-sick
- Ironside
- Ironsides
- iron-sided
- iron shrub
- iron smelting
- ironsmith
- iron sponge
- iron stain
- iron stand
- ironstone
- iron strap
- iron sulfate
- iron sulphate
- iron sulfide
- iron sulphide
- iron-sulfur cluster
- iron-sulphur cluster
- Ironton
- iron-tree
- iron tribromide
- iron trichloride
- iron tungstate
- Ironville
- iron virgin
- ironware
- ironweed
- ironwood
- ironwork
- ironwort
- irony
- iron yellow
- Italian iron
- jagging iron
- lamp-iron
- leg irons
- midiron
- nickel-iron
- pig iron
- pinking iron
- pump iron
- put every iron in the fire
- red iron oxide
- sad-iron
- scrap iron
- searing-iron
- sheet iron
- shooting-iron
- silicon iron
- smoothing iron
- snarling-iron
- soldering iron
- sponge iron
- steam iron
- stirrup iron
- strike while the iron is hot
- sulfate of iron
- sulphate of iron
- tire iron
- tyre iron
- toasting-iron
- toggle-iron
- too many irons in the fire
- tow-iron
- waffle iron
- wear iron
- white iron
- wrought iron
- zinc iron
Related terms
- andiron
- gridiron
Translations
See iron/translations § Noun.
Adjective
iron (not comparable)
- (not comparable) Made of the metal iron.
- (figuratively) Strong (as of will), inflexible.
- Synonyms: adamant, adamantine, brassbound
- She had an iron will.
- He held on with an iron grip.
- an iron constitution
- Iron men
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 201:
- […] the fruit-garden, where every tree and walk had a remembrance—those iron links of affection.
- 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
- And it is symptomatic of the many paradoxes of Lederer's life that of all the people in the room, Brotherhood is the one whom he would most wish to serve, if ever he had the opportunity, even though — or perhaps because — his occasional efforts to ingratiate himself with his adopted hero have met with iron rebuff.
- 2022 October 5, Rowena Mason, quoting Liz Truss, “Liz Truss promises ‘growth, growth and growth’ in protest-hit speech”, in The Guardian:
- But in her speech, Truss said she would exert an “iron discipline” over public spending, hinting at possible austerity to come. “I believe in sound money and a lean state,” she said.
Hypernyms
- (made of the metal iron): metal, metallic
Hyponyms
- (made of the metal iron): wrought-iron
Derived terms
Terms derived from adjective "iron"
- iron cap
- iron chink
- Iron Cross
- Iron Duke
- iron-faced
- iron-fisted
- Iron Guard
- iron gum
- iron gum tree
- iron hand
- iron horse
- iron jubilee
- iron law
- ironly
- iron lung
- iron mike
- iron oak
- iron paper
- iron sleep
- iron slumber
- iron walls
- iron wedding
- iron-willed
- iron-witted
- iron-worded
Translations
made of iron
|
strong, inflexible
|
See also
- ferrous, ferric
Verb
iron (third-person singular simple present irons, present participle ironing, simple past and past participle ironed)
- (transitive) To pass an iron over (clothing or some other item made of cloth) in order to remove creases.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30:
- Out of that tub had come the day before - Tess felt it with a dreadful sting of remorse - the very white frock upon her back which she had so carelessly greened about the skirt on the damping grass - which had been wrung up and ironed by her mother's own hands.
-
- (transitive, archaic) To shackle with irons; to fetter or handcuff.
- 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley:
- [...] is it he who is ironed like a malefactor—who is to be dragged on a hurdle to the common gallows—to die a lingering and cruel death, and to be mangled by the hand of the most outcast of wretches?
-
- (transitive) To furnish or arm with iron.
- to iron a wagon
Synonyms
- (to pass an iron over): press
Coordinate terms
- (to pass an iron over): mangle
Derived terms
- ironer
- ironing
- iron-on
- iron out
- non-iron
- unironed
Descendants
- → Japanese: アイロン (airon)
Translations
to pass an iron over clothing
|
to shackle with irons
|
to furnish or arm with iron
|
See also
See also
- cementite
- colcothar
- ferrate
- ferratin
- ferredoxin
- ferretto
- ferrimagnetism
- ferrite
- ferritin
- ferronerie
- ferronnerie
- ferronière
- ferronnière
- Flores martis
- haem
- heme
- haematite
- hematite
- haemochromatosis
- hemochromatosis
- magnetite
- molysite
- nife
- Prussian blue
- rust
- steel
- synthetic maghemite
- wustite
- wüstite
Further reading
- David Barthelmy (1997–2023), “Iron”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- “iron”, in Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2023.
- Jonathon Green (2023), “iron (hoof) n.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang
Anagrams
- Orin, RINO, Rion, inro, inrō, noir, nori, roin
Esperanto
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
iron
- accusative singular of iro
Japanese
Romanization
iron
- Rōmaji transcription of いろん