ˈbeak-iron
Also 9 beck-iron, 9- bick-.
[A corruption of bickern (= F. bigorne, It. bicornia, an anvil with two pointed extremities), altered first in form, and then in sense, by popular etymology.]
The pike or taper end of a blacksmith's anvil. Also, an anvil with two projecting taper ends.
| 1667 Moxon Mech. Exer. (1703) 3 A Black Smith's Anvil..is sometimes made with a Pike, or Bickern, or Beak-iron, at one end of it. 1828 Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 109 Anvil and Bick Iron. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 160 The furniture of a blacksmith's shop..comprising..vice, anvil with bick-iron, etc. Ibid. II. 39 A little beaked anvil, called a beck-iron. 1941 Archit. Rev. XC. 97/2 The bick iron, a narrow anvil, mounted about 3 feet 6 inches high, is for rounding, boring and cutting the iron hoops. |