Foundry
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A facility that melts metals in special furnaces and pours the molten metal into molds to make products. Foundries are usually specified according to the type of metal dealt with: iron foundry, brass foundry, etc. countable, uncountable
"So after learning a great deal about iron founding and much more about pike fishing, one regretfully took leave of a shop full of kindly characters and proceeded to a worse lot of odours in the brass foundry. […] So after a short spell in the brass foundry the wisest course was to follow with a similar period in the steel foundry, where much important work was done, including the manufacture of centres for wheels."
- 2 factory where metal castings are produced wordnet
- 3 The act, process, or art of casting metals; founding. countable, uncountable
- 4 A plant that produces chips out of semiconductors in the microelectronics industry. countable, uncountable
"Chang gained trust by allaying fears that TSMC would steal designs, as pure-play foundries have no use of them; TSMC stealing from chip designers would be like a printing press stealing plots from novelists."
Example
More examples"This type foundry has not existed for almost fifteen years."
Etymology
From French fonderie. By surface analysis, found (“to melt (metals)”) + -ry (“place; process”).
Related phrases
More for "foundry"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.