Anvil

Quick meaning: Anvil is a noun meaning A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.

Meaning

A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.

More Meanings

1. (anatomy) The incus bone in the middle ear.
2. A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails.
3. The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
4. (meteorology) A horizontal-topped mass of cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm.
5. (transitive, often figurative) To fashion on, or as if on, an anvil.

Example Sentences

My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, Which beats upon it like the Cyclops’ hammers […]

I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age, Which I commit, not to your patronage, But skill and Art […]

1794, William Blake, “The Tyger,” lines 15-16, What the anvil? what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

I never started a roguery, that did not come out of thy forge in a manner ready anvilled and hammered for execution […]

Word Forms

• anvils
• anviling
• anvilling
• anviled
• anvilled

Synonyms for anvil

Depending on context, synonyms include incus.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include incus, wall, ton, ancony, forge-hammer, flatter.

Related Dictionary Tools