| / English Dictionary |
IRONS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Metal shackles; for hands or legs
Synonyms:
chains; irons
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("irons" is a kind of...):
bond; hamper; shackle; trammel (a restraint that confines or restricts freedom (especially something used to tie down or restrain a prisoner))
Domain usage:
plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Present simple (third person singular) of the verb iron
Context examples:
The little dog retreated under the sofa on my approaching him, and was with great difficulty dislodged by the fire-irons.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I recollected the handcuffs in his state-room, which he preferred to use on sailors instead of the ancient and clumsy ship irons.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I see her yet in her raging passions, when we had driven her to extremities—spilt our tea, crumbled our bread and butter, tossed our books up to the ceiling, and played a charivari with the ruler and desk, the fender and fire-irons.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Close at his heels came sixteen squires, all chosen from the highest families, and behind them rode twelve hundred English knights, with gleam of steel and tossing of plumes, their harness jingling, their long straight swords clanking against their stirrup-irons, and the beat of their chargers' hoofs like the low deep roar of the sea upon the shore.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To her, the irons he swung were much hotter than she ever dared to use.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to clap you all in irons and take you home to a fair trial in England.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
She had by this time drawn the chair to her side, and was busily engaged in producing from the bag (plunging in her short arm to the shoulder, at every dive) a number of small bottles, sponges, combs, brushes, bits of flannel, little pairs of curling-irons, and other instruments, which she tumbled in a heap upon the chair.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
This ruddy shine issued from the great dining-room, whose two- leaved door stood open, and showed a genial fire in the grate, glancing on marble hearth and brass fire-irons, and revealing purple draperies and polished furniture, in the most pleasant radiance.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
By the afternoon, one feeding and one, stacking up, they were running socks and stockings through the mangle while the irons were heating.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
As for the latter's sailing, it was so wild and intermittent, and she hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if she did not even lose.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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