资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Iron \I"ron\ ([imac]"[u^]rn), n. [OE. iren, AS. [=i]ren,
   [=i]sen, [=i]sern; akin to D. ijzer, OS. [=i]sarn, OHG.
   [=i]sarn, [=i]san, G. eisen, Icel. [=i]sarn, j[=a]rn, Sw. &
   Dan. jern, and perh. to E. ice; cf. Ir. iarann, W. haiarn,
   Armor. houarn.]
   1. (Chem.) The most common and most useful metallic element,
      being of almost universal occurrence, usually in the form
      of an oxide (as hematite, magnetite, etc.), or a hydrous
      oxide (as limonite, turgite, etc.). It is reduced on an
      enormous scale in three principal forms; viz., cast iron,
      steel, and wrought iron. Iron usually appears dark brown,
      from oxidation or impurity, but when pure, or on a fresh
      surface, is a gray or white metal. It is easily oxidized
      (rusted) by moisture, and is attacked by many corrosive
      agents. Symbol Fe (Latin Ferrum). Atomic weight 55.9.
      Specific gravity, pure iron, 7.86; cast iron, 7.1. In
      magnetic properties, it is superior to all other
      substances.

   Note: The value of iron is largely due to the facility with
         which it can be worked. Thus, when heated it is
         malleable and ductile, and can be easily welded and
         forged at a high temperature. As cast iron, it is
         easily fusible; as steel, is very tough, and (when
         tempered) very hard and elastic. Chemically, iron is
         grouped with cobalt and nickel. Steel is a variety of
         iron containing more carbon than wrought iron, but less
         that cast iron. It is made either from wrought iron, by
         roasting in a packing of carbon (cementation) or from
         cast iron, by burning off the impurities in a Bessemer
         converter (then called Bessemer steel), or directly
         from the iron ore (as in the Siemens rotatory and
         generating furnace).

   2. An instrument or utensil made of iron; -- chiefly in
      composition; as, a flatiron, a smoothing iron, etc.

            My young soldier, put up your iron.   --Shak.

   3. pl. Fetters; chains; handcuffs; manacles.

            Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons.
                                                  --Macaulay.

   4. Strength; power; firmness; inflexibility; as, to rule with
      a rod of iron.

   {Bar iron}. See {Wrought iron} (below).

   {Bog iron}, bog ore; limonite. See {Bog ore}, under {Bog}.

   {Cast iron} (Metal.), an impure variety of iron, containing
      from three to six percent of carbon, part of which is
      united with a part of the iron, as a carbide, and the rest
      is uncombined, as graphite. It there is little free
      carbon, the product is white iron; if much of the carbon
      has separated as graphite, it is called gray iron. See
      also {Cast iron}, in the Vocabulary.

   {Fire irons}. See under {Fire}, n.

   {Gray irons}. See under {Fire}, n.

   {Gray iron}. See {Cast iron} (above).

   {It irons} (Naut.), said of a sailing vessel, when, in
      tacking, she comes up head to the wind and will not fill
      away on either tack.

   {Magnetic iron}. See {Magnetite}.

   {Malleable iron} (Metal.), iron sufficiently pure or soft to
      be capable of extension under the hammer; also, specif., a
      kind of iron produced by removing a portion of the carbon
      or other impurities from cast iron, rendering it less
      brittle, and to some extent malleable.

   {Meteoric iron} (Chem.), iron forming a large, and often the
      chief, ingredient of meteorites. It invariably contains a
      small amount of nickel and cobalt. Cf. {Meteorite}.

   {Pig iron}, the form in which cast iron is made at the blast
      furnace, being run into molds, called pigs.

   {Reduced iron}. See under {Reduced}.

   {Specular iron}. See {Hematite}.

   {Too many irons in the fire}, too many objects requiring the
      attention at once.

   {White iron}. See {Cast iron} (above).

   {Wrought iron} (Metal.), the purest form of iron commonly
      known in the arts, containing only about half of one per
      cent of carbon. It is made either directly from the ore,
      as in the Catalan forge or bloomery, or by purifying
      (puddling) cast iron in a reverberatory furnace or
      refinery. It is tough, malleable, and ductile. When formed
      into bars, it is called bar iron.



   {White elm} (Bot.), a majestic tree of North America ({Ulmus
      Americana}), the timber of which is much used for hubs of
      wheels, and for other purposes.

   {White ensign}. See {Saint George's ensign}, under {Saint}.
      

   {White feather}, a mark or symbol of cowardice. See {To show
      the white feather}, under {Feather}, n.

   {White fir} (Bot.), a name given to several coniferous trees
      of the Pacific States, as {Abies grandis}, and {A.
      concolor}.

   {White flesher} (Zo["o]l.), the ruffed grouse. See under
      {Ruffed}. [Canada]

   {White frost}. See {Hoarfrost}.

   {White game} (Zo["o]l.), the white ptarmigan.

   {White garnet} (Min.), leucite.

   {White grass} (Bot.), an American grass ({Leersia Virginica})
      with greenish-white pale[ae].

   {White grouse}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The white ptarmigan.
      (b) The prairie chicken. [Local, U. S.]

   {White grub} (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the June bug and other
      allied species. These grubs eat the roots of grasses and
      other plants, and often do much damage.

   {White hake} (Zo["o]l.), the squirrel hake. See under
      {Squirrel}.

   {White hawk}, or {kite} (Zo["o]l.), the hen harrier.

   {White heat}, the temperature at which bodies become
      incandescent, and appear white from the bright light which
      they emit.

   {White hellebore} (Bot.), a plant of the genus {Veratrum}
      ({V. album}) See {Hellebore}, 2.

   {White herring}, a fresh, or unsmoked, herring, as
      distinguished from a red, or cured, herring. [R.] --Shak.

   {White hoolet} (Zo["o]l.), the barn owl. [Prov. Eng.]

   {White horses} (Naut.), white-topped waves; whitecaps.

   {The White House}. See under {House}.

   {White ibis} (Zo["o]l.), an American ibis ({Guara alba})
      having the plumage pure white, except the tips of the
      wings, which are black. It inhabits tropical America and
      the Southern United States. Called also {Spanish curlew}.
      

   {White iron}.
      (a) Thin sheets of iron coated with tin; tinned iron.
      (b) A hard, silvery-white cast iron containing a large
          proportion of combined carbon.

   {White iron pyrites} (Min.), marcasite.

   {White land}, a tough clayey soil, of a whitish hue when dry,
      but blackish after rain. [Eng.]

   {White lark} (Zo["o]l.), the snow bunting.

   {White lead}.
      (a) A carbonate of lead much used in painting, and for
          other purposes; ceruse.
      (b) (Min.) Native lead carbonate; cerusite.

   {White leather}, buff leather; leather tanned with alum and
      salt.

   {White leg} (Med.), milk leg. See under {Milk}.

   {White lettuce} (Bot.), rattlesnake root. See under
      {Rattlesnake}.

   {White lie}. See under {Lie}.

   {White light}.
      (a) (Physics) Light having the different colors in the
          same proportion as in the light coming directly from
          the sun, without having been decomposed, as by passing
          through a prism. See the Note under {Color}, n., 1.
      (b) A kind of firework which gives a brilliant white
          illumination for signals, etc.

   {White lime}, a solution or preparation of lime for
      whitewashing; whitewash.

   {White line} (Print.), a void space of the breadth of a line,
      on a printed page; a blank line.

   {White meat}.
      (a) Any light-colored flesh, especially of poultry.
      (b) Food made from milk or eggs, as butter, cheese, etc.

                Driving their cattle continually with them, and
                feeding only upon their milk and white meats.
                                                  --Spenser.

   {White merganser} (Zo["o]l.), the smew.

   {White metal}.
      (a) Any one of several white alloys, as pewter, britannia,
          etc.
      (b) (Metal.) A fine grade of copper sulphide obtained at a
          certain stage in copper smelting.

   {White miller}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The common clothes moth.
      (b) A common American bombycid moth ({Spilosoma
          Virginica}) which is pure white with a few small black
          spots; -- called also {ermine moth}, and {virgin
          moth}. See {Woolly bear}, under {Woolly}.

   {White money}, silver money.

   {White mouse} (Zo["o]l.), the albino variety of the common
      mouse.

   {White mullet} (Zo["o]l.), a silvery mullet ({Mugil curema})
      ranging from the coast of the United States to Brazil; --
      called also {blue-back mullet}, and {liza}.

   {White nun} (Zo["o]l.), the smew; -- so called from the white
      crest and the band of black feathers on the back of its
      head, which give the appearance of a hood.

   {White oak}. (Bot.) See under {Oak}.

   {White owl}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The snowy owl.
      (b) The barn owl.

   {White partridge} (Zo["o]l.), the white ptarmigan.

   {White perch}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) A North American fresh-water bass ({Morone Americana})
          valued as a food fish.
      (b) The croaker, or fresh-water drum.
      (c) Any California surf fish.

   {White pine}. (Bot.) See the Note under {Pine}.

   {White poplar} (Bot.), a European tree ({Populus alba}) often
      cultivated as a shade tree in America; abele.

   {White poppy} (Bot.), the opium-yielding poppy. See {Poppy}.
      

   {White powder}, a kind of gunpowder formerly believed to
      exist, and to have the power of exploding without noise.
      [Obs.]

            A pistol charged with white powder.   --Beau. & Fl.

   {White precipitate}. (Old Chem.) See under {Precipitate}.

   {White rabbit}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The American northern hare in its winter pelage.
      (b) An albino rabbit.

   {White rent},
      (a) (Eng. Law) Formerly, rent payable in silver; --
          opposed to black rent. See {Blackmail}, n., 3.
      (b) A rent, or duty, of eight pence, payable yearly by
          every tinner in Devon and Cornwall to the Duke of
          Cornwall, as lord of the soil. [Prov. Eng.]

   {White rhinoceros}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The one-horned, or Indian, rhinoceros ({Rhinoceros
          Indicus}). See {Rhinoceros}.
      (b) The umhofo.

   {White ribbon}, the distinctive badge of certain
      organizations for the promotion of temperance or of moral
      purity; as, the White-ribbon Army.

   {White rope} (Naut.), untarred hemp rope.

   {White rot}. (Bot.)
      (a) Either of several plants, as marsh pennywort and
          butterwort, which were thought to produce the disease
          called rot in sheep.
      (b) A disease of grapes. See {White rot}, under {Rot}.

   {White sage} (Bot.), a white, woolly undershrub ({Eurotia
      lanata}) of Western North America; -- called also {winter
      fat}.

   {White salmon} (Zo["o]l.), the silver salmon.

   {White salt}, salt dried and calcined; decrepitated salt.

   {White scale} (Zo["o]l.), a scale insect ({Aspidiotus Nerii})
      injurious to the orange tree. See {Orange scale}, under
      {Orange}.

   {White shark} (Zo["o]l.), a species of man-eating shark. See
      under {Shark}.

   {White softening}. (Med.) See {Softening of the brain}, under
      {Softening}.

   {White spruce}. (Bot.) See {Spruce}, n., 1.

   {White squall} (Naut.), a sudden gust of wind, or furious
      blow, which comes up without being marked in its approach
      otherwise than by whitecaps, or white, broken water, on
      the surface of the sea.

   {White staff}, the badge of the lord high treasurer of
      England. --Macaulay.

   {White stork} (Zo["o]l.), the common European stork.

   {White sturgeon}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Shovelnose}
      (d) .

   {White sucker}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) The common sucker.
      (b) The common red horse ({Moxostoma macrolepidotum}).

   {White swelling} (Med.), a chronic swelling of the knee,
      produced by a strumous inflammation of the synovial
      membranes of the kneejoint and of the cancellar texture of
      the end of the bone forming the kneejoint; -- applied also
      to a lingering chronic swelling of almost any kind.

   {White tombac}. See {Tombac}.

   {White trout} (Zo["o]l.), the white weakfish, or silver
      squeteague ({Cynoscion nothus}), of the Southern United
      States.

   {White vitriol} (Chem.), hydrous sulphate of zinc. See {White
      vitriol}, under {Vitriol}.

   {White wagtail} (Zo["o]l.), the common, or pied, wagtail.

   {White wax}, beeswax rendered white by bleaching.

   {White whale} (Zo["o]l.), the beluga.

   {White widgeon} (Zo["o]l.), the smew.

   {White wine}. any wine of a clear, transparent color,
      bordering on white, as Madeira, sherry, Lisbon, etc.; --
      distinguished from wines of a deep red color, as port and
      Burgundy. ``White wine of Lepe.'' --Chaucer.

   {White witch}, a witch or wizard whose supernatural powers
      are supposed to be exercised for good and beneficent
      purposes. --Addison. --Cotton Mather.

   {White wolf}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) A light-colored wolf ({Canis laniger}) native of
          Thibet; -- called also {chanco}, {golden wolf}, and
          {Thibetan wolf}.
      (b) The albino variety of the gray wolf.

   {White wren} (Zo["o]l.), the willow warbler; -- so called
      from the color of the under parts.