cast iron
cast iron noun: a hard and brittle, but strong, alloy of iron, carbon, and silicon, formed by casting in a mould.
Noun
cast iron (countable and uncountable, plural cast irons)
- A hard and brittle, but strong, alloy of iron, carbon, and silicon, formed by casting in a mould.
- Cast iron is popular for cookware where an even heating temperature is important.
- The history of cast iron in railway bridges is much more grimly chequered. Brunel's misgivings were proved prudent, tragically, in the 1879 failure of Thomas Bouch's Tay bridge (once a monument to cast iron, now a memorial to many lives lost).2025 March 5, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Remembering Brunel's timber viaducts”, in RAIL, number 1030, page 60
Adjective
cast iron (comparative more cast iron, superlative most cast iron)
- Made of cast iron.
- I use a cast iron skillet for frying pancakes.
- Various forms of conductors have been invented, such as wooden and iron pipes, of a round, square, and polygonal section; but at present, scarcely any other than sheet or cast iron pipes are employed.1851, Frederick Overman, “Blast Pipes”, in The Manufacture of Iron, in All its Various Branches. […] , 2nd edition, Philadelphia: Henry C. Baird, page 413
- Durable; tough; resilient.
- Ernest has a cast iron constitution and never gets sick.
- Just because a pilot passes a pretty severe medical test every so often, it doesn't mean that he has a Cast Iron constitution and can fly indefinitely.1932 January, Charles W. Purcell, “Stop Telling the Pilot What to Do”, in Popular Aviation, volume 10, number 1, →ISSN, page 62
- Synonyms:
- bulletproof, impervious, iron, robust, unshakable
- Inflexible or without exception.
- The school's cast iron policy on admissions fees left no leeway for needy students.
- "The fact is," confided Tulloch, taking his place in the car, "I've been out of things for a bit, Wynn, and I'm finding civilisation a shade cast-iron now. I've been down in the wilds since you were with me."1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- iron-clad, stern, unrelenting, unwavering
cast iron meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Punjabi and Tagalog
cast iron in Tamil
- hard, brittle alloy of iron, carbon, silicon
- வார்ப்பிரும்பு vārppirumpu
cast iron in Kannada
- hard, brittle alloy of iron, carbon, silicon
- ತಂಡವಾಳ taṇḍavāḷa
cast iron in Punjabi
- hard, brittle alloy of iron, carbon, silicon
- ਦੇਗੀ ਲੋਹਾ degī lohā
cast iron in Tagalog
- hard, brittle alloy of iron, carbon, silicon
- binubong bakal
More languagesFewer languages
- cast iron in Indonesian
- besi tuang
- cast iron in Persian
- چدن čodan, چدنی čodani
- cast iron in Vietnamese
- gang
- cast iron in Myanmar
- သံကြွပ် samkrwap
Synonyms of cast iron
Forms of cast iron
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cast irons |
| alternative form | castiron |
| alternative form | cast-iron |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more cast iron |
| superlative | most cast iron |
Origin of cast iron
Derived from the casting of this form of iron. See wrought iron for comparison.
Words formed from cast iron
Questions about cast iron
- What does cast iron mean?
- Cast iron means a hard and brittle, but strong, alloy of iron, carbon, and silicon, formed by casting in a mould.
- What is cast iron in Tamil?
- Cast iron in Tamil is வார்ப்பிரும்பு (vārppirumpu). See Cast iron meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is cast iron?
- Cast iron can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of cast iron?
- The plural of cast iron is cast irons.
Words near cast iron in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cast iron (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cast iron.wav.
Cite this entry: “cast iron.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cast_iron. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.