Iron (metaphor)

Iron, when used metaphorically, refers to certain traits of the metal iron. Used as an adjective and sometimes as a noun, it refers to something stern, harsh, strong, unyielding, inflexible, rigid, sturdy, strong, robust, hard.^[1][2][3]

List of iron metaphors

Persons and characters

• Iron Duke (disambiguation)
• Iron Felix (disambiguation)
• Iron Lady (disambiguation)
• Iron Man (disambiguation)
• Iron Mike (disambiguation)
• Princess Iron Fan (disambiguation)
• Otto von Bismarck, known as the Iron Chancellor
• Iron Chef, a Japanese cooking show
• Joseph LaFlesche, known as Iron Eye
• Iron Eyes Cody, Sicilian-American actor
• The Iron Heinrich, a rough translation of the German fairy tale The Frog Prince
• Iron Heroes, a variant book of rules for the game Dungeons & Dragons
• Iron John, a German fairy tale
• Eon Kid, English title of the TV series Iron Kid
• Iron Lad, a fictional superhero
• Iron Maniac, an evil alternative universe character of fictional Marvel superhero Iron Man
• Iron Munro, a fictional superhero
• Persephone, known as the Iron Queen
• Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, known as the Iron Sheik
• Iron Shell, Brule Sioux chief
• Iron Tail, Oglala Sioux warrior
• Tigran Petrosian, known as Iron Tigran
• Timur as a name, meaning iron in Turkic languages, widespread in Western and Central Asia since the days of the Mongol Empire
• Hadid is an Arabic name (both given and surname) literally meaning "iron"

Animals and plants

• Iron Bird (disambiguation)
• Iron Butterfly (disambiguation)
• Iron Dragon (disambiguation)
• Iron Eagle (disambiguation)
• Iron Monkey (disambiguation)
• Iron Wolf (disambiguation)
• Iron horse (disambiguation)
• Iron wood (disambiguation)
• Ferrocalamus (iron bamboo)
• Iron cobra, a "construct" in the game Dungeons & Dragons
• Iron condor, an option trading strategy utilizing two vertical spreads
• Iron Kong, a fictional character from the science fiction media franchise Zoids

Body parts

• Iron Fist (disambiguation)
• Iron Hand (disambiguation)
• Iron Hands (disambiguation)
• Iron lung (disambiguation)
• See Joseph LaFlesche
• The Iron Heel, a 1908 dystopian novel
• Iron Palm, a body of training techniques in various Chinese martial arts

Geography

• Iron City (disambiguation)
• Iron Mountain (disambiguation)
• Iron River (disambiguation)
• Iron Range, regions around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada

Other iron metaphors

• Iron Bird (disambiguation)
• Iron Curtain (disambiguation)
• Iron Maiden (disambiguation)
• Iron Triangle (disambiguation)
• Unguided bomb, known as an iron bomb
• Iron Brigade, a Civil War brigade
• Iron cage, a sociology term
• Iron Fire, a Danish power and speed metal band
• Iron Guard, a historical far-right movement in Romania
• Iron harvest, an annual "harvest" collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields
• Iron Helix, a 1993 video game
• Iron Seed, a 1994 DOS video game
• Iron shirt, a form of hard style martial art exercise
• Iron Sunrise, a 2004 hard science fiction novel
• Iron Will, a 1994 film

Gallery

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  The Iron Duke
•  
  The Iron Chancellor
•  
  Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady
•  
  An Iron Duke engine
•  
  An iron lung
•  
  Big iron, an IBM z800 2066 mainframe
•  
  "Big Iron" or Colt Python
•  
  Iron Range in Minnesota
•  
  The Iron Curtain in modern-day Germany

See also

• Iron (disambiguation)
• Big Iron, a country ballad
•   The dictionary definition of iron at Wiktionary

References

1. "Iron: The man in the mask", BBC News article from 1999
2. Iron, definition at The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
3. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary^{[not specific enough to verify]}

Further reading

• Theodore Wertime and James Muhly, eds., The Coming of the Age of Iron (Yale, 1980, ISBN 0-300-02425-8) (hardcover)
• from the University of Iowa Museum of Art and Project for the Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa, discussing various metaphors (associated with iron) in African cultures.