Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) a purge of ‘red light’ areas.

1903

N.Y. Times 12 Feb. 2: The ‘iron ball,’ which in police parlance means a shake-up, rolled yesterday in the Tenderloin.

(Aus. prison) to make a surprise attack (irrespective of the weapon used).

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Iron-bar. Literally to hit someone with an iron bar but generally referring to any surreptitious attack. [Ibid.] Bar. 1. A contraction of iron bar.

(US Und.) a bullet-proof vest.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

see iron garters

a silver-laced hat.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

an old-fashioned hypodermic syringe made of metal and glass.

1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 102: The medic withdrew an antique syringe with a curlicued metal plunger [...] ‘An oldtime iron butterfly’, Joe breathed reverentially [...] From far away he heard the painful grunt as the butterfly struck.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 77: Eventually we did stick one another’s real-life veins with 14ga needle-catheters, and we drew one another’s real-life blood with butterflies.

(US und.) a prison.

2005

W.D. Myers Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 32: Iron City had so many brothers hooked up that it looked like Homeyville.

(US black) extremely unfavourable circumstances from which it is hard to extract oneself.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

(W.I.) a tough sugar candy, extremely hard to chew.

1952

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

(US drugs) a ‘cure’ for addiction given in prison: the prisoner is deprived of drugs and forced to withdraw in his cell.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 104/1: iron-cure. The cold-turkey treatment usually administered in jails and prisons; the addict is taken off drugs suddenly and allowed to kick his habit out on the floor of his cell. [Ibid.] 109/2: steel-and-concrete cure. See iron-cure.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 311: iron cure. A cure for addiction which the addict undertakes voluntarily.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 174: Steel cure [...] Steel-and-concrete cure – A method of treating severe narcotic addiction by the sudden imposition of an inflexible regimen of total abstinence.

1. a prison.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Iron-doublet a Prison.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. (US) innocence.

1881

Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890) 18: Iron doublet. Innocence; not guilty.

(US) a hard and hostile stare.

1941

J. Thurber in H.T. Paxton Sport USA (1961) 297: We stand there givin’ ’em the iron eye, it bein’ the lowest ebb a ball-club manager’d got hisself down to since the national pastime was started.

(W.I.) corn meal cooked with rice.

1943

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

leg-irons, fetters.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 2: He’s adorn’d with a pair of Iron Boots.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 74: We were presently under Lock and Key, and were attended by a very complaisant Person, who made each of us a Present of a Pair of Iron Garters.
1769		W. Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) n.p.: Iron Garters, a cant word for bilboes, or fetters.
1817		Scott Rob Roy (1839) 57: Muckle wad the provost and bailies o’ Glasgow gie to hae him sitting with iron garters to his hose within their tolbooth, that now stands wi’ his legs as free as the red-deer’s.
1855		H.A. Wise Tales for the Marines 312: You have a chance for a pair of twenty pound iron gaiters on your shanks at Rio, for your share of the copper venture.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 404: Iron Garters. A cant word for bilboes, or fetter.

(US) a derby hat.

1897		Princeton Union (MN) 18 Mar. 5/3: ‘Iron Hats’ in black, brown and pearl, latest styles.
1908		Arizona Republican (Phoenix) 22 July 7: Toggery’s Shovel ’Em Out Sale [...] Iron Hats sale price $2.10.
1914		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 12 Sept. [synd. cartoon] Indoor Sports — Coming to work with last winter’s iron hat. Where did you get that boiler?
1919		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 3 Oct. 27: [cartoon caption] Petey — Sure, Hard Head — Iron Hat I guess I’ll get me a new roof.
1926		Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Iron Hat - Derby.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.

see separate entries.

see separate entries.

1. (US Und., also iron hotel) a prison.

1891		Anaconda Standard (MT) 10 June 4/4: The Indians [...] decided to capture him and turn him over to the ‘white man’s chief at the iron house’.
1915		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 99: If I make a break I’m liable to be put in the old iron house for a stretch.
1923		E. O’Neill Hairy Ape VI: This is the old iron house.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 107: Iron House. – A gaol or prison.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Iron hotel, a jail.
1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 123/1: iron house. A city jail.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 108/2: Iron-house, n. (Pennsylvania and near South) 1. A local jail. 2. (Rare) The segregation jail within a prison.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 4: Iron House A prison.

2. a punishment cell.

1950

see sense 1.

(US gay) an exceptionally competent fellator.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.

1. a deep air-raid shelter in the London underground.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 601/1: 1940–5.

2. the Central Line, in its extension from Shoreditch to Essex.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 601/2: 1950+.

3. (Irish) an aluminium keg of beer, usu. Guinness.

1997

Share Slanguage.

4. an open-air urinal.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 189: Iron lung Old-fashioned street urinal with iron fixtures.

see separate entry.

handcuffs.

1823

Devizes & Wiltshire Gaz. 25 Dec. 4/1: Then they put the iron mittens on me [...] They took me before Ould Justice Ballymagtoglem.

(US teen) one who wears orthodontic braces.

1965

Delaware Co. Dly Times (Chester, PA) 5 Feb. 9/1: I had to live with the names ‘tinsel teeth’ and ‘iron mouth’ [...] it hurts.

a prison.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

the weight-lifting and body-building facilities in a prison .

1980		G. Liddy Will (con. 1973) 325: I started working out with the other clerk, a good friend who hated weight-lifting as much as I loved it. He paid a black man who had operated a health club in civilian life to drag him out of bed to the ‘iron pile’.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 4: Iron Pile also Weight Pile The area of the recreation yard of a prison where weightlifting equipment is kept and used.
2004		D. Grann ‘The Brand’ in New Yorker 16 Feb. 170/3: ‘I’ll outfit it with a well-stocked law library, computer research desk, copy machine, iron pile, pool table’.

see rivets n.

(US Und.) a prison.

1927		G. Rector Girl from Rector’s 68: In passing their tables I often heard such sinister words as ‘the mouthpiece,’ ‘the big store,’ ‘the mob,’ ‘the iron theatre,’ and ‘the rap.’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Iron theatre, a building that houses police headquarters, district attorney’s office, police and criminal courts and city prison.

(US, NY) the former industrial neighborhood of Willets Point, Queens.

2014

B. Nadler ‘Walk Up’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] [T]hey were jacking cars every night, and selling them up in the Iron Triangle in Queens.