iron meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

iron

nounalso spelled Iron

UK /ˈaɪ.ən/ · US /ˈaɪ.ɚn/

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”), possibly a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”). Cognates Cognate with Scots airn, ern (“iron”), Yola eeren (“iron”), Saterland Frisian Iersen (“iron”), West Frisian izer (“iron”), Bavarian Eisn (“iron”), Cimbrian aizarn (“iron”), Dutch ijzer (“iron”), German, Luxembourgish Eisen (“iron”), German Low German Isen (“iron”), Alemannic German Ise (“iron”), Limburgish iezer (“iron”), Mòcheno aisn (“iron”), Vilamovian ȧjza (“iron”), West Flemish yzer (“iron”), Yiddish אײַזן (ayzn, “iron”), Danish jern, jærn (“iron”), Faroese jarn (“iron”), Icelandic járn (“iron”), Jamtish járn, jáðn (“iron”), Norwegian Bokmål jern (“iron”), Norwegian Nynorsk jarn, jern, jønn (“iron”), Swedish jern, jaͤrn, järn (“iron”), Gothic 𐌴𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌽 (eisarn, “iron”).

14 senses

1A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when…
2Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.
3A tool or appliance made of metal, which is heated and…
4Any of several other tools traditionally made of wrought…
5Shackles.
6A firearm, either a long gun or a handgun.
7A dark shade of the color silver.
8A male homosexual.
9A golf club used for middle-distance shots.
10Used as a symbol of great strength or toughness, or to…
11Weight used as resistance for the purpose of strength training.
12A meteorite consisting primarily of metallic iron (mixed…
13A safety curtain in a theatre.
14A dumb bomb, one without guidance systems.

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.

Today we studied about metals — including iron — at school.
They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass. Ave. wafting in from behind brick buildings and iron gates.2005 June 9, Michael M. Grynbaum, “An Entryway That Eats Together Stays Together”, in The Harvard Crimson, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2025:

Engineering, Metallurgy, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.

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.

Any of several other tools traditionally made of wrought iron, now usually of steel.

Plural normally Shackles.

Slang A firearm, either a long gun or a handgun.

It's many niggas now totin' iron.
Ah, throw that old iron over here! We'll pick it up and go on our way.1948, John Huston, Treasure of the Sierra Madre:

1 more example

the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip1959, Marty Robbins, “Big Iron”:

A dark shade of the color silver.

Cockney, Offensive, Slang A male homosexual.

Shortened from iron hoof; rhyming with poof; shortened from iron hoof; rhyming with poof

Golf, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A golf club used for middle-distance shots.

The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:

Figuratively 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.

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports, Weightlifting Weight used as resistance for the purpose of strength training.

He lifts iron on the weekends.
I wanted Beauty, and what Nature had failed to supply, Iron would.1986, Paul Reed, “Serenity”, in Eric E. Rofes, editor, Gay Life: Leisure, Love, and Living for the Contemporary Gay Male, page 10:

Astronomy, Geography, Geology, Natural sciences 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.

Government, Military, Politics, War Slang A dumb bomb, one without guidance systems.

Derived terms: 246 terms
balling-iron, beak-iron, beck-iron, bick-iron, bog iron ore, boom-iron, brand-iron, cast-iron, cast-iron stomach, chromate of iron, chrome iron ore, clothing-iron, copper-iron, cramp-iron, faggot iron, fagot iron, flat iron steak, gal-iron, gamma-iron, green iron ore, grey iron, hack-iron, hard as iron, have too many irons in the fire, hot iron test, in iron, in irons, ironable, Iron Acton, Iron Age, iron age, iron alum, iron bacterium, iron band, ironbark, iron-bind, iron-binding, iron bird, iron bloom, iron blue, iron-blue, iron-blue fly, iron bomb, Ironbottom Sound, ironbound, iron brew, iron bridge, Ironbridge, iron buff, iron butterfly, iron cage, ironcaps spider orchid, iron carbide, iron-cased, iron cement, iron chloride, ironclad, iron-clad, iron clay, iron cloth, iron condor, Iron County, iron cross, iron curtain, Iron Curtain, iron deficiency, iron-deficient, Iron Dome, iron eagle, ironed, ironedetate, iron fall, ironfield, iron filings, iron fist, iron flint, iron-founder, ironfounder, ironfounding, iron foundry, iron-free, iron-gall ink, iron game, iron gang, Iron Gates, iron glance, iron grass, iron gray, iron-gray, iron grey, iron-grey, iron group, iron-handed, ironhanded, iron handed, iron-handedly, iron handedly, iron handedness, iron-handedness, iron-hard, iron harvest, iron hat, iron-headed, ironheads, ironheart, iron-hearted, iron-heartedness, iron heater, iron heel, iron hoof, iron horse, iron house, iron hydroxide, iron(III) chloride, iron(III) oxide, iron iodide, ironish, iron lady, ironless, ironlike, iron liquor, iron loss, iron maid, iron maiden, iron-maker, ironmaker, iron-making, ironmaking, iron-manganese tungstate, iron man, ironman, iron mask, ironmaster, iron meteorite, Iron Mike, iron mine, ironmine, iron-miner, iron mining, iron mold, ironmonger, ironmongery, iron monticellite, iron-montmorillonite, iron mould, iron mountain, Iron Mountain, ironness, iron ore, iron oxide, iron pan, iron period, ironperson, iron phosphate, iron-plated, iron play, iron player, Iron Pot Creek, iron protoxide, iron pyrite, iron pyrites, Iron Range, iron ration, iron rice bowl, iron-rich, iron ring, iron road, iron saffron, iron salt, iron sand, ironsand, iron saw, iron scale, ironshod, iron-shod, ironshot, iron-shot, iron shrub, iron-sick, Ironside, ironside, iron-sided, Ironsides, iron smelting, ironsmith, iron sponge, Iron Springs, iron stain, iron stand, ironstone, iron strap, iron sulfate, iron sulfide, iron-sulfur cluster, iron-sulfur protein, iron sulphate, iron sulphide, iron-sulphur cluster, iron-sulphur protein, Ironton, iron-tree, iron triad, iron triangle, iron tribromide, iron trichloride, iron tungstate, Ironville, iron virgin, iron vitriol, ironware, ironweed, ironwoman, ironwood, ironwork, ironworker, ironworking, ironwort, irony, iron yellow, lamp-iron, leg irons, making-iron, mid-iron, mulling iron, nickel-iron, proto-iron, put every iron in the fire, red iron oxide, rule with a rod of iron, sad-iron, searing-iron, shank-iron, shooting-iron, stony-iron, stretching-iron, strike the iron while it's hot, strike while the iron is hot, sulfate of iron, sulphate of iron, toasting-iron, toggle-iron, too many irons in the fire, tow-iron, tue-iron, waxing iron, wouldn't work in an iron lung, yttrium iron garnet
Related terms: andiron, gridiron
Hypernyms: metal
Hyponyms: 147 terms
alpha iron, angle iron, arsenical iron, bad iron, bar iron, barking iron, Berlin iron, Bessemer iron, beta iron, big iron, black iron, bloomery iron, bog iron, box iron, branding iron, brandiron, bridle iron, calking iron, cast iron, caulking iron, chrome iron, chromic iron, climbing iron, clothing iron, cobiron, cold iron, corrugated iron, cramp iron, crance iron, cranse iron, crimping iron, crisping iron, croze iron, curling iron, delta iron, diiron, draw iron, ductile iron, electric iron, epsilon iron, fire iron, firing iron, flatiron, flat iron, fresh off the irons, galvanised iron, galvanized iron, gamma iron, gammon iron, gob iron, goose iron, grab iron, grappling iron, gray iron, grozing iron, hair iron, harping iron, hawser iron, heptairon, hexaaquairon, hexairon, horse iron, iron-54, iron-56, iron-57, iron-58, Italian iron, jagging iron, leg iron, lily iron, lofting iron, malleable iron, mashie iron, meaking iron, merchant iron, meteoric iron, meteoritic iron, midiron, motley iron, noniron, octairon, organoiron, patty iron, pentairon, pie iron, pig iron, pinking iron, plane iron, plough iron, plow iron, pumping iron, pump iron, pyrophoric iron, Quevenne's iron, radioiron, riesel iron, ripping iron, road iron, roast iron, round iron, rub iron, running iron, Russia iron, Russian iron, sable iron, sadiron, sand iron, scrap iron, scribing iron, shaving iron, sheet iron, silicon iron, smoothing iron, snarling-iron, snarling iron, soldering iron, span iron, sparry iron, spathic iron, specular iron, spiegel iron, sponge iron, steam iron, steely iron, stirrup iron, stony iron, stub iron, sweating iron, sweet iron, tamping iron, tank iron, telluric iron, tetrairon, tire iron, toddy iron, toggle iron, tow iron, tramp iron, triron, tyre iron, uniron, waffle iron, wear iron, white iron, wroughtiron, wrought iron, zinc iron

iron

adj

Etymology

Made of the metal iron.

Figuratively Strong (as of will), inflexible.

She had an iron will.
He held on with an iron grip.

4 more examples

an iron constitution
Iron men
[…]the fruit-garden, where every tree and walk had a remembrance—those iron links of affection.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 faces of the gods are iron and their mouths set hard. There is no hope from the gods.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 64:

Derived terms: 27 terms
iron cap, iron chink, Iron Cross, Iron Curtain, Iron Duke, iron-faced, iron-fisted, Iron Guard, iron gum, iron gum tree, iron hand, iron horse, iron jubilee, Iron Lady, iron law, iron lung, ironly, iron mike, iron oak, iron paper, iron sleep, iron slumber, iron walls, iron wedding, iron-willed, iron-witted, iron-worded
Related terms: ferrous, ferric
Hypernyms: metal, metallic
Hyponyms: wrought-iron

iron

verb

Etymology

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.
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.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30:

1 more example

Kathy and I discovered that you can iron your hair straight.1965 February 10, Lou Sullivan, Diary:

To engage in such pressing of clothing.

They were washing and ironing all morning.

Archaic To shackle with irons; to fetter or handcuff.

[...] 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?1814, Walter Scott, Waverley:

To furnish, clad, or arm with iron.

to iron a wagon

Synonyms: press
Derived terms: ironer, ironing, iron-on, iron out, non-iron, unironed
Related terms: 29 terms
cementite, colcothar, ferrate, ferratin, ferredoxin, ferretto, ferrimagnetism, ferrite, ferritin, ferronerie, ferronière, ferronnerie, ferronnière, Flores martis, haem, haematite, haemochromatosis, hematite, heme, hemochromatosis, magnetite, molysite, nife, Prussian blue, rust, steel, synthetic maghemite, wustite, wüstite
Coordinate terms: mangle

Iron

adj

Etymology

From Ossetian Ирон (Iron), a derivation (with the adjective suffix Ossetian -он (-on) from the historical genitive plural Proto-Indo-Iranian *-ānaHam) of Ossetian Ир (Ir). Ossetian Ир (Ir) probably reflexes Proto-Indo-Iranian *wiHrás. Because the Digoron ethnonym for the Ir is Ossetian Ирӕ (Iræ), Cheung (2002) has suggested a derivation from the plural Proto-Indo-Iranian *wiHrā́s. Ossetian Ирон (Iron) is unrelated to Iran despite the superficial similarity in form. Borrowed into the Vainakh languages (and some Dagestani languages) as their exonym for the Ossetes, cf. Chechen Хӏири (Hiri), Ingush Хӏире (Hire).

Of or pertaining to the Iron people.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for iron and Iron.

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Conjugation of “iron”, all tenses