Word.ws English Dictionary

in irons

in irons prepositional phrase: the "trapped" condition a sailing ship finds itself in when the bow of the ship is headed into the wind and the ship has stalled and is unable to maneuver.

Prepositional phrase

  1. The "trapped" condition a sailing ship finds itself in when the bow of the ship is headed into the wind and the ship has stalled and is unable to maneuver.
    Synonyms:
    cold iron
  2. The state of screw-powered ships which become stalled between crests of waves or swells during a typhoon, for instance, and the ship's rudder does not respond to the commands from the helm, leaving the ship at the mercy of the sea and in danger of capsizing.

Synonyms of in irons

Questions about in irons

What does in irons mean?
In irons means the "trapped" condition a sailing ship finds itself in when the bow of the ship is headed into the wind and the ship has stalled and is unable to maneuver.
What part of speech is in irons?
In irons is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in irons in the dictionary

  1. in hysterics
  2. in idea
  3. in ill part
  4. in increment
  5. in infinitum
  6. in irons
  7. in isolation
  8. in it
  9. in its entirety
  10. in its totality
  11. in itself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in irons (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.

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