


1. Made of cast iron.
2. Rigid; inflexible: a cast-iron rule.
3. Exceptionally strong or resistant: a cast-iron stomach.

cast′ i′ron

an alloy of iron, carbon, and other elements, cast as a soft and strong, or as a hard and brittle iron.


1. made of cast iron.
2. not subject to change or exception: a cast-iron rule.
3. hardy: a cast-iron stomach.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.cast-iron - extremely robust; "an iron constitution"
robust - sturdy and strong in form, constitution, or construction; "a robust body"; "a robust perennial"


adjective certain, established, settled, guaranteed, fixed, definite, copper-bottomed, idiot-proof I can't give you any cast-iron guarantees that you job will be safe.


[ˈkɑːstˌaɪən] ADJ
1. (lit) → (hecho) de hierro fundido
2. (fig) [will] → inquebrantable, férreo; [case] → irrebatible; [excuse] → frente a la que no se puede decir nada


(fig) will, constitutioneisern; case, alibihieb- und stichfest


[ˈkɑːstˈaɪən] adjdi ghisa (fig) (will, alibi) → di ferro
the police had a cast-iron case against the drug smuggler → la polizia aveva prove schiaccianti contro il trafficante di droga
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995


(kaːst) past tense past participle cast verb
1. to throw. The angler cast his line into the river; These facts cast new light on the matter; She cast him a look of hatred.
2. to get rid of; to take off. Some snakes cast their skins.
3. to shape (metal etc) by pouring into a mould. Metal is melted before it is cast.
4. to give a part in a play etc to. She was cast as Lady Macbeth.
5. to select the actors for (a film etc). The director is casting (the film) tomorrow.
6. to give (a vote). I cast my vote for the younger candidate.
1. a throw. At his third cast he caught a fish.
2. something made by moulding. The doctor put a plaster cast on his broken leg.
3. a mould. The hot metal is poured into a cast.
4. the complete set of actors in a play, opera etc. the whole cast of the play.
5. something that is ejected by certain animals, eg the earthworm. worm casts all over the grass.
ˈcastaway noun
a shipwrecked person.
casting vote
the deciding vote of the chairman of a meeting when the other votes are equally divided.
cast iron
unpurified iron melted and shaped in a mould.
ˈcast-iron adjective
1. made of cast iron. a cast-iron frying-pan.
2. very strong. cast-iron muscles.
ˈcast-off noun, adjective
(a piece of clothing etc) no longer needed. cast-off clothes; I don't want my sister's cast-offs.
cast off
1. to untie (the mooring lines of a boat).
2. (also cast aside) to reject as unwanted.
3. in knitting, to finish (the final row of stitches).
cast on
in knitting, to make the first row of stitches.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
Either the wooden horse was careless, or it failed to properly time the descent of the hammer, for the mighty weapon caught it squarely upon its head, and thumped it against the ground so powerfully that the private flew off its back high into the air, and landed upon one of the giant's cast-iron arms.
The three travelers approached the orifice of the enormous cast-iron tube, and a crane let them down to the conical top of the projectile.
The Countess Olenska had said "after five"; and at half after the hour Newland Archer rang the bell of the peeling stucco house with a giant wisteria throttling its feeble cast-iron balcony, which she had hired, far down West Twenty-third Street, from the vagabond Medora.
In shrewdness of remark, and a certain cast-iron quaintness, the Yankees, or people of New England, unquestionably take the lead; as they do in most other evidences of intelligence.
(with one red sock on and one wanting), in the bar; where the cheese was cast aground upon a shelf, in company with a mouldy tablecloth and a green-handled knife, in a sort of cast-iron canoe; where the pale-faced bread shed tears of crumb over its shipwreck in another canoe; where the family linen, half washed and half dried, led a public life of lying about; where everything to drink was drunk out of mugs, and everything else was suggestive of a rhyme to mugs; The Tilted Wagon, all these things considered, hardly kept its painted promise of providing good entertainment for Man and Beast.
I do not know what another person would have done, but at this point I gave up; that cast-iron indifference, that tranquil contemptuousness, conquered me, and I struck my colors.
'Don't stop to ask questions, cast-iron head,' replied the long man, with great disgust, taking it for granted that the inquirer was a footman; 'but open the door.'
He seemed to have two pairs of hands and a head of cast-iron, for, not content with blowing through a big conch-shell, he must needs stand up to it, swaying with the sway of the flat-bottomed dory, and send a grinding, thuttering shriek through the fog.