Word.ws English Dictionary

cold iron

cold iron noun: a (possibly fictional) substance harmful to fairies; depending on the story, ordinary iron or iron treated in some way. Also the alternative form of cold steel.

Noun

cold iron (uncountable)

  1. a (possibly fictional) substance harmful to fairies; depending on the story, ordinary iron or iron treated in some way
  2. (Ireland, Scotland, slang) A bad omen.

Also used as

cold iron is also the alternative form of cold steel.

Questions about cold iron

What does cold iron mean?
Cold iron means a (possibly fictional) substance harmful to fairies; depending on the story, ordinary iron or iron treated in some way.
What part of speech is cold iron?
Cold iron is a noun.

Words near cold iron in the dictionary

  1. Cold Harbor
  2. cold hard cash
  3. cold hardy
  4. Cold Hiendley
  5. cold in one's grave
  6. cold iron
  7. Cold Kirby
  8. Cold Lake
  9. cold launch
  10. cold launches
  11. cold light

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cold 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:

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