ironclad

From iron +‎ clad.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

An ironclad (armor-plated warship).

ironclad (not comparable)

1. Covered with iron, steel, or some metal; armor-plated.

   Unlike the average vehicle, cash delivery vans are ironclad and almost unstoppable.

   • 1903, The Land Ironclads‎, Digitized edition (Science Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2006:

     In that flickering pallor it had the effect of a large and clumsy black insect, an insect the size of an ironclad cruiser, crawling obliquely to the first line of trenches and firing shots out of portholes in its side.

2. (figuratively) Solid or certain; not able to be disputed or questioned; irrefutable.

   The suspect had an ironclad alibi for his whereabouts on the night of the crime.

3. (figuratively) Rigorous; severe; exacting.

   an ironclad oath or pledge

4. (figuratively) Stubborn; inflexible.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     All the previous articles had only elicited a growl here or there from a hide-bound Catholic or from an iron-clad Evangelical, but now his post-bag was full.

ironclad (plural ironclads)

1. A metal-plated ship, vessel, or vehicle.
   • 1903, The Land Ironclads‎, Digitized edition (Science Fiction), Project Gutenberg, published 2006:

     He turned again to the nearest land ironclad, advancing now obliquely to him and not three hundred yards away, and then scrambled the ground over which he must retreat if he was not to be captured.

2. (military) An armor-plated warship, (especially) one preceding the invention of harveyized steel.
   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 178:

     About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child.

• ironclad beetle
• land ironclad

• Alcindor, Rolandic, dicloran, rolandic