from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Iron \I"ron\ ([imac]"[u^]rn), a. [AS. [imac]ren, [imac]sen. See
{Iron}, n.]
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1. Of, or made of iron; consisting of iron; as, an iron bar,
dust.
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2. Resembling iron in color; as, iron blackness.
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3. Like iron in hardness, strength, impenetrability, power of
endurance, insensibility, etc.; as:
(a) Rude; hard; harsh; severe.
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Iron years of wars and dangers. --Rowe.
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Jove crushed the nations with an iron rod.
--Pope.
(b) Firm; robust; enduring; as, an iron constitution.
(c) Inflexible; unrelenting; as, an iron will.
(d) Not to be broken; holding or binding fast; tenacious.
"Him death's iron sleep oppressed." --Philips.
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Note: Iron is often used in composition, denoting made of
iron, relating to iron, of or with iron; producing
iron, etc.; resembling iron, literally or figuratively,
in some of its properties or characteristics; as,
iron-shod, iron-sheathed, iron-fisted, iron-framed,
iron-handed, iron-hearted, iron foundry or
iron-foundry.
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{Iron age}.
(a) (Myth.) The age following the golden, silver, and
bronze ages, and characterized by a general
degeneration of talent and virtue, and of literary
excellence. In Roman literature the Iron Age is
commonly regarded as beginning after the taking of
Rome by the Goths, A. D. 410.
(b) (Arch[ae]ol.) That stage in the development of any
people characterized by the use of iron implements in
the place of the more cumbrous stone and bronze.
{Iron cement}, a cement for joints, composed of cast-iron
borings or filings, sal ammoniac, etc.
{Iron clay} (Min.), a yellowish clay containing a large
proportion of an ore of iron.
{Iron cross}, a German, and before that Prussian, order of
military merit; also, the decoration of the order.
{Iron crown}, a golden crown set with jewels, belonging
originally to the Lombard kings, and indicating the
dominion of Italy. It was so called from containing a
circle said to have been forged from one of the nails in
the cross of Christ.
{Iron flint} (Min.), an opaque, flintlike, ferruginous
variety of quartz.
{Iron founder}, a maker of iron castings.
{Iron foundry}, the place where iron castings are made.
{Iron furnace}, a furnace for reducing iron from the ore, or
for melting iron for castings, etc.; a forge; a
reverberatory; a bloomery.
{Iron glance} (Min.), hematite.
{Iron hat}, a headpiece of iron or steel, shaped like a hat
with a broad brim, and used as armor during the Middle
Ages.
{Iron horse}, a locomotive engine. [Colloq.]
{Iron liquor}, a solution of an iron salt, used as a mordant
by dyers.
{Iron man} (Cotton Manuf.), a name for the self-acting
spinning mule.
{Iron mold} or {Iron mould}, a yellow spot on cloth stained
by rusty iron.
{Iron ore} (Min.), any native compound of iron from which the
metal may be profitably extracted. The principal ores are
magnetite, hematite, siderite, limonite, G["o]thite,
turgite, and the bog and clay iron ores.
{Iron pyrites} (Min.), common pyrites, or pyrite. See
{Pyrites}.
{Iron sand}, an iron ore in grains, usually the magnetic iron
ore, formerly used to sand paper after writing.
{Iron scale}, the thin film which forms on the surface of
wrought iron in the process of forging. It consists
essentially of the magnetic oxide of iron, {Fe3O4}.
{Iron works}, a furnace where iron is smelted, or a forge,
rolling mill, or foundry, where it is made into heavy
work, such as shafting, rails, cannon, merchant bar, etc.
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