flatiron - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

flatiron (plural flatirons)

  • A simple iron (for pressing laundry) which is heated on a stove.
    • The evil-smelling larrikin, beer-imbued —
      The evil-loving brute-man homeward goes,
      He kicks his dirty children with his boot,
      Cursing their hunger, — and his poor worn wife
      With cold flat-irons and handled broom awaits
      His coming, to revile his drinking hard.
      1
  • A pair of metal tongs with heated ceramic plates used for straightening hair.
  • (especially referring to the shape of a building) a quadrilateral with two parallel sides, one of which is very short, and whose non-parallel sides are longer than either parallel side.
  • (geomorphology) A steeply sloping triangular landform created by the differential erosion of a steeply dipping, erosion-resistant layer of rock overlying softer strata.
  • Ellipsis of flat iron steak.

Adjective

flatiron (not comparable)

  • Having a flatiron shape.
    • a flatiron building
    • The street down which Warwick had come intersected Front Street at a sharp angle in front of the old hotel, forming a sort of flatiron block at the junction, known as Liberty Point2

Etymology

From flat +‎ iron.

Pronunciation

Printed 2026-08-24.

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Footnotes

  1. 1881 December 3, Sydney Punch, page 8, column 2:

  2. 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars: