ironbound
Americanadjective
-
bound with iron
-
unyielding; inflexible
-
(of a coast) rocky; rugged
Etymology
Origin of ironbound
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at iron, -bound 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Right now, he’s piloting “Man of La Mancha,” and he’s so excited that he brings a model of designer Allen Moyer’s dark, ironbound prison set and Ann Hould-Ward’s costume sketches to an interview.
From Washington Post • Mar. 19, 2015
He described 19th-century “path-makers,” highbred gentlemen who spent summers armchair-engineering intricate paths around Mount Desert Island’s barren 1,500-foot peaks, glacial lakes and ironbound shoreline.
From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2014
The famed Georgian Military Highway, from the North Caucasus to Georgia, skirts the site of the historic ironbound Daryal gates, which in ancient days closed the Daryal Gorge.
From Time Magazine Archive
A cartoon showed two armed guards toting a padlocked, ironbound chest into a house; the housewife was calling upstairs: "It's the men with your galoshes, dear!"
From Time Magazine Archive
While I looked them over, Sander rummaged through an ironbound chest and tossed me a short kersey tunic and a pair of plain breeches.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
