ironclad
ironclad adjective: covered with iron, steel, or (loosely) any other tough metal; armor-plated.
Adjective
ironclad (comparative more ironclad, superlative most ironclad)
- Covered with iron, steel, or (loosely) any other tough metal; armor-plated.
- Unlike the average vehicle, cash delivery vans are ironclad and almost unstoppable.
- In that flickering pallor it had the effect of a large and clumsy black insect, an insect the size of an ironclad cruiser, crawling obliquely to the first line of trenches and firing shots out of portholes in its side.1903, The Land Ironclads, Digitized edition (Science Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2006
- Solid or certain; not able to be disputed or questioned; irrefutable.
- The suspect had an ironclad alibi for his whereabouts on the night of the crime.
- Rigorous; severe; exacting.
- an ironclad oath or pledge
- Observers of the day considered his rule more ironclad than that of the Prendergast machine in Kansas City, or even Tammany Hall in New York.1982, Randall Rothenberg, “Battling For Ballots”, in Princeton Alumni Weekly, volume 82, page 31
- Stubborn; inflexible.
- He is in his seventieth year, and has done work enough in his life to try the most ironclad constitution.1893, Carter H. Hepburn, “Leland Stanford”, in Munsey's Weekly, volume 9, page 177
- All the previous articles had only elicited a growl here or there from a hide-bound Catholic or from an iron-clad Evangelical, but now his post-bag was full.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
Noun
ironclad (plural ironclads)
- A ship, vessel, or vehicle with a covering of iron, steel, or (loosely) any other tough metal.
- He turned again to the nearest land ironclad, advancing now obliquely to him and not three hundred yards away, and then scrambled the ground over which he must retreat if he was not to be captured.1903, The Land Ironclads, Digitized edition (Science Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2006
- An armor-plated warship, (especially) one preceding the invention of harveyized steel.
- About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 178
- A wooden warehouse with an outer skin of corrugated metal.
ironclad meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Persian
ironclad in Tamil
- இரும்புபோல் உறுதியான, இரும்புத்தகடுகள் வேயப்பட்ட கப்பல்
ironclad in Urdu
- آہن پوش, پکا, سخت
ironclad in Persian
- a ship covered with iron or steel
- آهنپوش âhan-puš
Forms of ironclad
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more ironclad |
| superlative | most ironclad |
| Noun | |
| plural | ironclads |
Origin of ironclad
From iron + clad.
Words formed from ironclad
Phrases with ironclad
Questions about ironclad
- What does ironclad mean?
- Ironclad means covered with iron, steel, or (loosely) any other tough metal; armor-plated.
- What is ironclad in Tamil?
- Ironclad in Tamil is இரும்புபோல் உறுதியான, இரும்புத்தகடுகள் வேயப்பட்ட கப்பல். See Ironclad meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is ironclad?
- Ironclad can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near ironclad in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ironclad (page history and authors); ironclad (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ironclad (Urdu Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ironclad.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ironclad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ironclad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.