iron
/ˈʌɪən
/- The use of certain essential materials such as iron, steel, copper, and industrial chemicals was either prohibited or restricted.
- The resulting alloy is stronger and harder than iron or bronze.
Synonyms
- Personally she is my favourite, although I also like Hope's inner iron strength, and Faith's inner vulnerability.
- It was the wrong thing to say, for he grabbed her wrist in his hand, clamping down on it with iron strength in a painful reminder of what he was.
- But just staging the production is a remarkably brave act in a country where a tiny leadership elite uses its iron grip to promote once-vilified capitalist policies.
Synonyms
Iron is widely distributed as ores such as haematite, magnetite, and siderite, and the earth’s core is believed to consist largely of metallic iron and nickel. Besides steel, other important forms of the metal are cast iron and wrought iron. Chemically a transition element, iron is a constituent of some biological molecules, notably haemoglobin.
- Gradually the business changed to supplying shoe irons for blacksmiths and began making nails.
- Small-scale manufacturers also often relied on local smiths to provide the iron parts they required, be it mill irons or parts for vehicles.
Synonyms
- Her feet were bound by irons, dress ripped ripped, and battered towards one side, while the other side draped down, just above the ankles.
Synonyms
- With exercise rider in the irons, Evening Attire galloped once around the Belmont training track on Tuesday morning.
- On the manager's office's left side was a grand, immense tack room, holding saddles, bridles, leathers, irons, and all assortments of tack to a large magnitude.
- Omnabibi uses an electric iron for her creased clothes.
- For the middle classes, the decline of domestic servants was facilitated by the rise of domestic appliances, such as cookers, electric irons and vacuum cleaners.
Synonyms
- Could not drive straight, could not manipulate the ball with irons and had a putter that was so cold it might have dripped with ice.
- Still, my thought is of the way Nicklaus seems to caress the golf ball with his irons - the balls stays longer on his clubface.
- Consequently, players of average skill should find it easier to launch the golf ball higher with newer irons.
- I bombed my tee shot, put a short iron on the green and two-putted for par.
- Imagine: three-shot holes; long irons to par - 4s; shots bending in the wind.
- The more prudent play is to keep the second shot to the right and then play a short iron into the green.
- His face is scrubbed, his clothes are ironed and his hair is slicked down.
- Even the man who ironed clothes near Jayashri's home was overawed and showed her new respect.
Synonyms
Phrases
have many (or other) irons in the fire
in irons
iron hand (or fist)
an iron hand (or fist) in a velvet glove
Phrasal verbs
iron something out
Derivatives
ironer
/ noun ...- What an odd mixture to carry around in my head, torrents of water dumping from the washers, the hiss of steam rising from the presses, and the grinding protest of the rollers on the flat work ironer when Papa started it up.
- There will be a time-saving automatic shirt ironer, a huge plasma screen in a den in the basement, a steam oven and a high-technology music and television system beamed into every room.
- Selclene is one of the UK's largest domestic cleaning agencies providing a regular cleaner / ironer for private houses.
iron-like
- Who, with an iron-like grip, presided over the single most successful era in Australian test cricket history?
- Actually, his iron-like arms, which were capable of restraining several grown men, probably only had their power further increased by the logging work.
- Pushing her into a room, he refused to release his iron-like grasp.
Origin
Old English īren, īsen, īsern, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch ijzer and German Eisen, and probably ultimately from Celtic.
The English word iron probably came from Celtic and was related to Latin aes ‘bronze’ and English ore (Old English). There are many different tools and implements described as irons because they are or were originally made of iron, such as branding irons and fire irons. The expression to have many irons in the fire, ‘to have a range of options’, comes from the way such tools are made. Blacksmiths have to heat the iron objects in a fire until they reach the critical temperature at which they can be shaped. If they have several items in the forge at the same time they can remove one and hammer it until it has cooled, then return it to the fire to heat up again and work on another. Another phrase from the work of a blacksmith is to strike while the iron is hot, ‘to make use of an opportunity immediately’.
In a speech made in March 1946, Winston Churchill observed that ‘an iron curtain has descended across the Continent [of Europe]’. People often cite this as the origin of the Iron Curtain, the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West before the decline of communism after 1989, but the phrase had been used in reference to the Soviet Union in the 1920s, and had the more general meaning of ‘an impenetrable barrier’ as far back as the early 19th century. Its origins actually lie in the theatre. Today's theatres employ a flame-resistant fire curtain, which in the late 18th century would have been of metal, a genuine iron curtain. In 1948 the term Bamboo Curtain arose to refer to the then-impenetrable barrier between China and non-Communist countries. Margaret Thatcher, then soon to become British prime minister, was given the nickname the Iron Lady in January 1976 by the Soviet newspaper Red Star. The paper accused her of trying to revive the Cold War. Irony (early 16th century) has no connection with iron. It came from Greek eirōneia ‘pretended ignorance’. See also velvet
Rhymes
- unresolvable
- unresolve
- unresolved
- unresolvedly
- unresolvedness
- unresolving
- unresounding
- unresourceful
- unrespect
- unrespectable
- unrespected
- unrespectful
- unrespecting
- unrespective
- unrespirable
- unrespited
- unresponding
- unresponsible
- unresponsive
- unresponsively
- unresponsiveness
- unrest
- unrestable
- unrested
- unrestful