Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous trees, such as the hornbeam and the hop hornbeam, that have very hard wood.
  • noun The wood of any of these trees.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Polynesia, Casuarina equisetifolia, a littoral tree with jointed leafless branches and very hard and heavy wood: used by the natives for making spears. See horsetail-tree and agoho.
  • noun A large tree of the myrtle family, Metrosideros lucida, yielding a very hard, strong, red wood, which is used for ship-building, spokes, hubs, and cross-ties for railways.
  • noun One of numerous species of peculiarly hard-wooded trees, belonging to many orders and widely distributed.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A tree unusually hard, strong, or heavy wood.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable Any of a number of tree species known for having a particularly solid wood.
  • noun uncountable The wood of any ironwood tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun exceptionally tough or hard wood of any of a number of ironwood trees
  • noun medium-sized hop hornbeam of eastern North America
  • noun handsome East Indian evergreen tree often planted as an ornamental for its fragrant white flowers that yield a perfume; source of very heavy hardwood used for railroad ties
  • noun a small slow-growing deciduous tree of northern Iran having a low domed shape

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From iron (for its toughness) + wood

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Examples

  • Back in Maine, the term ironwood clearly referred to the common hop hornbeam.

    languagehat.com: HACKMATACK. 2005

  • Courtesy of the artist Dismantled temples dating from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) provided the tieli wood -- also called ironwood -- for "Map of China" (2004).

    The Collector: Ai Weiwei 2009

  • Unique to southwestern Morocco, the trees produce a hard wood, called ironwood, used for fuel.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2010

  • Ocean City Mayor Sal Perillo said that he could not ignore the potential long-term cost savings of installing ipe, which is sometimes called ironwood for its durability.

    Rainforest Portal RSS Newsfeed 2009

  • More than 160 plant species, including six threatened succulents, depend upon legumes such as ironwood and mesquite for their regeneration in the Sonoran Desert.

    Sonoran desert 2009

  • The two that are getting to me lately are "ironwood," which here in Hawai'i means a variety of Casuarina sp. native to Australia I think.

    languagehat.com: HACKMATACK. 2005

  • Locally known as "ironwood," casuarinas have been planted for erosion control, dune stabilization, windbreaks, fuelwood plantations, beautification, and watershed cover.

    2. Experiences with Casuarinas 1984

  • Though its historic charm remains, the home also includes a new gourmet kitchen, media room, game room, art studio, ironwood veranda and three original Wright Roman fireplaces.

    PHOTOS: Inside Frank Lloyd Wright's Historic Gridley House Aixa Velez 2011

  • Though its historic charm remains, the home also includes a new gourmet kitchen, media room, game room, art studio, ironwood veranda and three original Wright Roman fireplaces.

    PHOTOS: Inside Frank Lloyd Wright's Historic Gridley House Aixa Velez 2011

  • Though its historic charm remains, the home also includes a new gourmet kitchen, media room, game room, art studio, ironwood veranda and three original Wright Roman fireplaces.

    PHOTOS: Inside Frank Lloyd Wright's Historic Gridley House Aixa Velez 2011

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