iron

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”).

The position of the element iron in the periodic table, and its structure.

An electric clothes iron.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.ən/
  • Homophone: ion
• (General American) enPR: ī'ərn, IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.ɚn/
• (dialectal, Canada, Scotland, Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ.ɹən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)n

iron (countable and uncountable, plural irons)

1. (uncountable) A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when untarnished, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel: a chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.

   Synonym: ferrum

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:iron.
2. (uncountable, countable, metallurgy) Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.

   wrought iron, ductile iron, cast iron, pig iron, gray iron

3. (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.

   Synonyms: clothes iron, flatiron, smoothing iron

   Hyponyms: box iron, charcoal iron, steam iron

   Coordinate terms: clothes press, mangle

4. (usually in the plural, irons) Shackles.

   Hyponym: leg irons

5. (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

6. (uncountable) A dark shade of the color silver.
7. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, offensive, shortened from iron hoof, rhyming with poof) A male homosexual.

   Synonyms: poof, queer; see also Thesaurus:male homosexual

8. (golf) A golf club used for middle-distance shots.

   Hyponyms: driving iron, long iron, short iron, 1-iron, 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron, 5-iron, 6-iron, 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron

   • 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:

     The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]

9. (uncountable, figurative) Used as a symbol of great strength or toughness, or to signify a very strong or tough material.

   ironman; a will of iron

   He appeared easygoing, but inside he was pure iron.

10. (weightlifting) Weight used as resistance for the purpose of strength training.

    He lifts iron on the weekends.

11. (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.

12. A safety curtain in a theatre.
13. (military, slang) Dumb bombs, those without guidance systems.

iron (not comparable)

1. (not comparable) Made of the metal iron.
2. (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], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 201:

     […] the fruit-garden, where every tree and walk had a remembrance—those iron links of affection.

   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 64:

     The faces of the gods are iron and their mouths set hard. There is no hope from the gods.

   • 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.

• (made of the metal iron): metal, metallic

• (made of the metal iron): wrought-iron

• ferrous, ferric

iron (third-person singular simple present irons, present participle ironing, simple past and past participle ironed)

1. (transitive) To pass an iron over (clothing or some other item made of cloth) in order to remove creases.

   You'd be wise to iron that shirt before you wear it.

   • 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.

2. (intransitive) To engage in such pressing of clothing.

   They were washing and ironing all morning.

3. (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?

4. (transitive) To furnish, clad, or arm with iron.

   to iron a wagon

• (to pass an iron over): press

• (to pass an iron over): mangle

• → Japanese: アイロン (airon)

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Iron”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “iron”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “iron (hoof) n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

• Orin, RINO, Rion, inro, inrō, noir, nori, roin

• Audio

  (file)

iron

1. accusative singular of iro

iron

1. Rōmaji transcription of いろん