pig-iron
[f. pig n.1 7: cf. sow-iron.]
1. Cast iron in pigs or ingots, as first reduced from the ore.
| 1665 D. Dudley Mettallum Martis (1851) 49 Some Furnaces make Twenty Tuns of Pig Iron per Week. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. (1806) III. 104 The lateral moulds or channels are called pigs, and hence cast-iron receives the appellation of pig-iron. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 325 The finest English pig-iron is from Cumberland hæmatite. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss. s.v., Mine-pig is pig⁓iron made from ores only; cinder-pig, from ores with admixture of some forge or mill-cinder. |
| attrib. 1882 Pall Mall G. 31 May 9/2 The pig-iron market opened with little doing at 47s. 2½d. cash. |
2. Cookery. An iron plate hung between the meat and the fire when the latter is too hot.
| a 1756 E. Haywood New Present (1771) 105 If it [the fire] should be too fierce in the middle, you must make use of a pig-iron. 1847–78 in Halliwell. |