ironclads

Noun

ironclad (plural ironclads)

1. 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
2. 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
3. A wooden warehouse with an outer skin of corrugated metal.

See all 7 meanings of ironclad