ironwork, iron-work
(-wɜːk)
Forms: see iron n.1
1. Work in iron; usually concr. that part of anything that is made of iron, or articles made of iron collectively.
| 1451 Yatton Church-w. Acc. (Somerset Rec. Soc.) 92 For yreworke for ij wyndowys..iii s. ix d. 1475 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 597 All other Irnewerk redy wrought. 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 83 Irenwerk nailes and other store. 1556–7 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 442 For Iron and Iron worke abowte the Roode. 1592–3 in Swayne Sarum Church-w. Acc. (1896) 141 Ire work abought the church. 1613 Purchase Pilgrimage (1614) 88 Inventers of Artes..building, yron-workes, tents, and such like. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 11 The ill condition of the Harwich's Iron-works discovered at her cleaning in 1682. 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 167, I had more iron⁓work saved out of the ship. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxi. 545 Wheels fitted with their iron-work. |
2. An establishment where iron is smelted, or where heavy iron goods are made. Now always in pl. form ironworks (which is sometimes construed as a sing.).
| 1581 Act 23 Eliz. c. 5 Which woods..be by him preserued and coppised for the vse of his Iron workes. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) I. 148 Here he shewed me a convenient seat for an iron-work. 1645 Boate Irel. Nat. Hist. (1652) 132 Of the lesser Iron-works, called Bloomeries. 1685 Petty Last Will in Tracts (1769) p. vi, I set up iron-works and pilchard-fishing in Kerry. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 466 A man of great merit, who, having begun life with nothing, had created a noble estate by ironworks. |
† b. A mine for digging iron-ore. Obs.
| 1713 Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 290 The Bath-Fabric had Ore and Fuel from the Silures..where Adrian sunk an Iron⁓work. |
3. attrib.
| 1674 Petty Disc. Dupl. Proport. 104 In Iron-work Furnaces are the greatest and most regular moving Bellows that are any where used. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 30 Dec. 8/3 Two ironwork contractors. |
Hence ˈironworky a. (nonce-wd.), abounding in or characterized by ironwork.
| 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. vi. 189, I was already wise enough to feel the Cathedral stiff and iron-worky. |