Word.ws English Dictionary

running iron

running iron noun: a branding iron which is not bent into the shape of the mark but rather requires the user to write the desired brand (and thus allows writing any brand).

Noun

running iron (plural running irons)

  1. A branding iron which is not bent into the shape of the mark but rather requires the user to write the desired brand (and thus allows writing any brand).
    • So flagrantly did these gentlemen miswield the “running iron,” that several States eventually forbade its use by anybody, and everywhere its mere possession gave rise to suspicion.2007, Philip Ashton Rollins, The Cowboy, page 183

Forms of running iron

pluralrunning irons

Questions about running iron

What does running iron mean?
Running iron means a branding iron which is not bent into the shape of the mark but rather requires the user to write the desired brand (and thus allows writing any brand).
What part of speech is running iron?
Running iron is a noun.
What is the plural of running iron?
The plural of running iron is running irons.

Words near running iron in the dictionary

  1. running interference
  2. running into
  3. running into a brick wall
  4. running into one
  5. running into the ground
  6. running iron
  7. running irons
  8. running it up
  9. running joke
  10. running jokes
  11. running knot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: running 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.

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Cite this entry: “running iron.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/running_iron. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.