name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   plural of iron form-of, plural
2. 2
   Shackles. dated, plural, plural-only

   "He’s been clapped in irons!"

3. 3
   metal shackles; for hands or legs wordnet
4. 4
   A lack of forward motion. plural, plural-only

   "Alice steered the boat into the wind, so we were stuck in irons."

5. 5
   The stirrups. plural, plural-only

Verb

1. 1
   third-person singular simple present indicative of iron form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname.
2. 2
   West Ham United F.C. (a football club based in London).

Synonyms

All synonyms

bondbridlechainchainscollarcuff

Example

More examples

"Too many irons in the fire result in bad workmanship."

Related phrases

eating ironsfighting ironsin ironsirons in the fireleg irons

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.