iron n.
1. the penis.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Play of Weather in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 118: For with pecking and pecking I have so wrought, / That I have pecked a good pecking-iron to nought. | |
| ‘Song’ in Pills to Purge Melancholy II 199: Red-hot grew his Iron as both did desire [...] Six times did his Iron by vigorous heating, / Grow soft in the Forge in a Minute or so. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 195: Six times did his Iron by vigorous heating, / Grow soft in the Forge in a Minute or so. | |
| Randiana 31: I could not help congratulating myself on the stubborn bar of iron which my unfortunately dismantled trousers could scarcely keep from popping out. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Betty Boop in “Flesh”’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 29: There goes the old iron right up her blushing snatch. | |
| ‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 99: You’ve just sunk the old boy right up to the nuts [and] the iron just shrivels away. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | The Park and Other Stories (1983) 23: When I lay a goose, she know she be lay good an’ proper [...] I carry a number nine iron [...] I dig deep. Heavy steel, dat’s me. |
2. as a metal coin.
(a) money.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Twice Round the Clock 92: Pause before you sell that sheet anchor of hope, of ours, for old iron. | |
| Londres et les Anglais 315/2: iron, se prend aussi pour argent. | |
| Houndsditch Day by Day 190: Bring the ready iron, my lad [...] It saves a lot o’ talkin’. | |
| Spoilers 5: I’d tip you over that there wall an’ give you a swim wi’ the sewer rats if it wasn’t for the iron you’re goin’ to give me. | |
| ‘The Blokes Outside’ Sporting Times 6 Aug. 1/4: ’Tis they who find the iron to keep me and all my mates / In these grand hotels in clover, for the cost goes on the rates. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 7 June 9/6: Slang of Money [...] It has been called ‘the actual, the blunt, hard, dirt, evil, flimsy, gilt, iron, John Davis, lurries, moss, oil of angels, pieces, rowdy, spondulicks, tin, wad’ . | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 153: An’ ’is mouthpiece makes ’im for the iron and lays ’im flat. | |
| You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Iron: Silver coin. | |
| et al. DAUL 108/2: Iron. 1. (Carnival) Money. |
(b) (US) $1 in cash.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 49: Once upon a time there was a deck scrubber named Tom Sharkey who had a drag on Uncle Sam’s roll for about nine irons a month. |
3. as a metallic object.
(a) (US) bullets or shells.
| diary 12 Mar. 🌐 There was still a lot of dirty iron flying about and considerable rifle fire from the Germans. | |
| (con. 1914–18) Three Lights from a Match 237: If any iron comes our way [...] you get fifteen seconds to say your prayers in. |
(b) a sword.
| Navy at Home II 111: ‘Aye, aye, boy,’ answered his antagonist, lugging out his cold iron [...] ‘Other people can handle a sword as well as a parlez vous son of a b—h!’. |
(c) (US, also fire-iron, piece of iron) a gun (but note cite 2001).
| London Assurance in London Assurance and other Victorian Comedies (2001) Act V: Take up the irons every now and then, string for the first shot and blaze away at one another. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Feb. 3/1: He brough his trusty ‘bit of old iron’ out of the house and [...] threatened [...] to make a hole in one or other of their spicy waistcoats. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Nov. 6/5: Mr Cooper fortunately had a revolver [...] Seeing the ‘iron,’ the highwayman ran to the rear. | |
| Golden Butterfly II 93: Huggins was a trifle handier with his irons. In fact Huggins had shot enough men to make a small graveyard of his own. | |
| Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 7/2: [title] And he never draw’d iron on boy or man / As didn’t provoke him much. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 283: Give in! Put down your irons. | |
| Dumont’s Joke Book 121: I – stands for ‘Iron’ that we shoot with our might. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 37/1: Martin’ll make his iron bark a bit, ter keep the game up, but he won’t mean nothin’. | |
| Confessions of a Detective 27: Your true gangster is never one to meet the iron face to face. | |
| ‘A Short Word-List From Wyoming’ in DN III:7 550: fire-iron(s), gun. | |
| Big Town 182: So I pulled the iron and knocked off a couple of his toes. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 78: When I opened my poke, to stow the long green, the lawyer noticed I had a gun in it. [...] ‘You, and that iron, don’t go out of this office till you sign this release.’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | At Swim-Two-Birds 78: Be damned but wasn’t it Red Kiersay himself, the so-and-so, standing there with an iron in each hand. | |
| Little Sister 23: The town’s full of old iron. | |
| Fabulous Gunman 90: I don’t cotton to being called a liar, but if I call you one you’ll pull your iron. | |
| Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 24: I’m keeping your gun [...] I’m taking any iron that Carol has when she shows. | |
| Concrete Kimono 48: ‘You’ve noticed I’m toting a Betsy.’ ‘Betsy?’ ‘Equalizer, rod, gat, iron.’. | |
| Gonif 48: He must have picked up a couple more pieces of iron outside. | |
| Hunter 175: He saw the cop from the bushes with the .38 in his hand. ‘You can shed the iron, Mr. Policeman,’ Winston told him. ‘I am not considered dangerous.’. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Big Huey 249: iron (n) Firearm. British, in the sense of a pistol, from about 1835. | |
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 143: We’re hard on Private Johnny Hams what come aroun’ totin’ iron. | |
| Homeboy 240: He thought the Duke went for his iron first. | |
| Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] We’ve got to show these boys the iron [...] Can’t out-run them. | |
| Corner (1998) 30: One of the Stricker and Ramsay boys [...] tilted the table and came out with his iron. | |
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 93/1: iron n. 1a weapon of some sort, most commonly applied to a firearm, but also applied to an iron bar, a knife, or metal ripped from a prison bed. | |
| Last Tango in Aberystwyth 124: ‘A rod, an iron, a gat . . .’ ‘You mean a gun?’. | |
| ‘Late Editions’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 9 [TV script] Them guns are mine [...] even though I ain’t touched that iron. | |
| (con. 1972) What It Was 186: You can’t bring that iron in here. | |
| ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Lugging a green sports bag heavy with iron. | |
 | ‘Trapping’s Alive’ 🎵 Trapping put shoes on my feet, trapping put corn in the iron. | |
| Boy from County Hell 237: ‘You sure you don’t want some iron? I got Andre’s GI .45 in my glove box’. |
(d) (US Und.) a drill bit.
| Gay-cat 83: These drills are somethin’ fierce. Give me another iron! |
(e) (US prison) handcuffs.
| Roman Hat Mystery 162: The more I hear about Field the more I dislike putting the irons on the fellow who did away with him. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 76: You might as well get that iron off him [...] He ain’t going to do no successful running from here. | |
| Tragic Magic 101: Yo man, take this shit off me, I’m a free man; take all this iron off me. |
(f) (US) a discontinued model of motor car, a run-down, dilapidated automobile.
| Glass Key 524: ‘Got an iron I can have? One that’ll carry me over country roads tonight?‘ Tommy said: ‘[. . . .] Well, I got a Buick that I don’t care what happens to’. | |
| ‘Feature Snatch!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 This is a rented iron from one of the Hollywood U-drive agencies,”. | |
| Vice Trap 17: That iron couldn’t go down a hill in high. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 410: He could see Cadillacs, Lincolns [...] a million dollars’ worth of ice-cream and candy-colored iron. | |
| Another Day in Paradise 222: The ’57 is smoking and clunking [...] and Bones says, ‘Gonna miss this piece of iron.’. | |
| Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] Randall [...] tried to bench press a ton and a half of Detroit iron. | |
| Boy from County Hell 236: Beasts of Detroit iron lurked in the shadows. |
(g) a housebreaker’s implement, a crowbar.
| Phenomena in Crime 251: The bishop, cane, iron, or stick. All mean a jemmy. |
(h) (US) a motorcycle.
| Hells Angels 60: The state was alive with bikes, nearly all of them powerful American-made irons from Harley-Davidson and Indian. | |
| Freewheelin Frank 96: They saw me standing near my bike [...] ‘Dig, I’ve got some trouble with my iron. I just pulled down here off the boulevard.’. | |
| Zap Comix 6 n.p.: Only time I work on ma’ iron is onna Sunday. | |
| Ducktails in Gray Theatre Two (1981) 46: The Brammie boys over from Joeys on their irons, and Abba’s ous, all the biggest brekers in Pretoria. |
(i) (US) weights, as used in bodybuilding exercises.
| False Starts 157: It’s a rare con who doesn’t at least think of hitting the iron. | |
| Hard Candy (1990) 161: There was another guy in the joint [...] A gorilla. Iron-freak. | |
| California Bear 34: He was hoisting iron and swilling High Life and listening to Deep Purple. |
(j) (N.Z. prison) a tattoo gun.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 93/1: iron n. 2 a tattoo machine. |
(k) (also throwing iron) a knife.
| Animal Factory 30: If five of us need iron for one dude . . . we better go ask Stoneface to lock us up for protection. | |
| West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 106: To cease the clash of skull and iron in our streets. | |
| Boy from County Hell 170: Pitou [...] threw a dagger from his boot [...] The throwing iron sank into the wood of the pirogue. |
4. in fig. use, courage.
| Vocabulum 44: Courage; fearless; staunch. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 108: Willie hasn’t the iron to be crooked. | |
| Homeboy 27: He hadn’t the iron to extinct himself by bullet or Big Shot. |
5. (W.I., Jam.) a thug, a gangster.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Harder They Come 153: Arright [...] dat seem to be de iron in de place tonight. |
In compounds
(US) $1.
| ‘The New Fable of the Lonesome Camp’ in Ade’s Fables 266: I have three million Iron Boys and most of it is Turkey. | |
| Cayton’s Wkly (Seattle, WA) 21 June 2/1: Fees have advanced a dollar each, which [...] means Grant is in the fight [...] with blood in his eyes and ‘iron boys’ in his hand. | |
| (con. 1918) Chevrons 183: Well, I earned a dollar yesterday an’ I’ll earn another one today. I’ll remark they’ll be the toughest two iron boys I ever made in my life. |
(US) $1 in cash.
| Cheyenne Transporter (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 10 Feb. 7/3: R.M. Allen [...] left a ‘cast iron dollar’ for a year’s subscription. | |
| Mohave County Miner (AZ) 12 Aug. 3/2: Fred Pomeroy is the mourning the loss of a big iron dollar. | |
| True Bills 5: Mrs. Gillespie had tapped the Bank for seven large, Iron Dollars. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 168: Bill Murphy pulled down seventy-five round iron dollars. | |
| Pullman Herald (WA) 2 Jan. 1/6: He had received full value for the big iron dollars. | |
| Pirate Piece Apr. 4: Two and one half iron bucks [HDAS]. |
(US) a weight-lifting enthusiast.
| On the Yard (2002) 244: A single iron freak was making dead lifts of what looked close to a thousand pounds. |
(US prison) one who works out with body-building weights.
| Homeboy 225: John Henry was a wimp next to these two ironheads. | |
| Back to the Dirt 23: Only strangers track to the front. Common visitors and iron heads, as he calls them, trail to the back. |
(US) $1.
| Artie (1963) 50: I just fed eight big iron louies into that game last night. |
1. (US) $1; usu. in pl.
| [ | | Sun (NY) 18 Oct. 11/2: I piped Joe Yeager betting four thousand bessemer men]. |
| Eve. Statesman (Walla Walla, WA) 5 Mar. 3/2: Three iron men are three dollars. | |
| Maison De Shine 45: A feller who shells out his six iron men every week. | |
| ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 54: If you don’t enjoy the one down to the Auditorium, they’s no use o me payin’ five iron men to have you bored to death. | |
| Adventures of a Boomer Op. 36: Said Chief wires [...] the one hundred iron men due yours truly for services rendered. | |
| (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 145: I got a hundred iron men in my pocket. | |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 125: Hundred dollars [...] Iron men. Fish. Bucks to the number of one hundred. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 229: Did you read about the reward? Ten thousand iron men. | |
| (con. 1930s) Lawd Today 145: ‘How much do you want?’ ‘One hundred iron men.’. | |
| (con. late 19C) Gentle Giant 24: I’ve got twenty lil ole iron men. |
2. (US) $1000.
| Burn, Killer, Burn! 66: That loss cost us [...] eight grand, eight big iron men all shot to hell and gone... |
3. (orig. Aus.) £1 note.
| DSUE (8th edn) 601/2: sense-adapted ca. 1944 ex US iron man, a dollar. |
(UK und.) a housebreaker’s crowbar.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 7: Old iron: Jemmy, housebreaker’s implement. |
(US Und.) to pistol-whip.
| Gonif 108: I had leaped on him, pistol drawn. I iron-whipped him with all the pent-up hate and fury of a warped childhood. |
In phrases
see pump iron
(US Und.) to go armed, esp. as a gangster’s bodyguard.
| Und. and Prison Sl. |
see under draw v.4
(US prison) to spend time in a cell.
| Chicago Trib. 26 Sept. 3/1: He explained that ‘make him eat iron’ means to lock up a prisoner. |
see sense 3b above.
of money, to spend freely.
| Layer Cake 159: Guys like Kinky don’t open savings accounts [...] they iron it [i.e money] out as quick as possible. |
(US Black) tap-dancing.
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 12 Nov. 11/11: A solid killer diller with an uncanny knack for laying down fine irons. |
see sense 3b above.
(orig. US) to work out with weights, to practise bodybuilding.
| Seize the Time 33: He’d been to the joint, and had been throwin’ iron up there. | |
| N.Y. Post 19 Oct. 7: When Lisa Lyon, 26, met muscleman-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago [...] she began to pump iron. | |
| Big Huey 68: Les, Junk and I would go down to the weight room and pump a bit of iron. | |
| Homeboy 224: Let’s bump some iron. Maybe I’ll calm down some. [...] Only two other cons were mad enough to be driving iron on the weight pile. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 74: Then there’s the gym get noticed. All regular sessions and any extras there’s me pumping iron. | |
| Westsiders 191: You know what the biggest thing in prison is? Pumping iron. | |
| Some Day Never Comes 119: I was at the gym a few months ago, and right next to me was a huge muscleman pumping iron. | |
| Running the Books 317: He was benching 175. I wondered how much I could do [...] It had been a while since I pumped iron. | |
| Back to the Dirt 44: Pumped iron three or four days a week. |
(US) to exercise with weights.
| On the Yard (2002) 346: You better stick to rasslin’ and [...] pushing iron. | |
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
(N.Z.) to become indebted, lit. or fig.
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 89/1: put an iron on your shoulder get into debt or become beholden to somebody. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |