ironwood Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. 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
    ironwood tree; Mesua ferrea; rose chestnut.
  2. noun exceptionally tough or hard wood of any of a number of ironwood trees
  3. noun a small slow-growing deciduous tree of northern Iran having a low domed shape
    iron-tree; iron tree; ironwood tree.
  4. noun medium-sized hop hornbeam of eastern North America
    Eastern hop hornbeam; Ostrya virginiana; ironwood tree.

WordNet

I"ron*wood` noun
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A tree unusually hard, strong, or heavy wood. ✍ In the United States, the hornbeam and the hop hornbeam are so called; also the Olneya Tesota, a small tree of Arizona; in the West Indies, the Erythroxylon areolatum, and several other unrelated trees; in China, the Metrosideros vera; in India, the Mesua ferrea, and two species of Inga; in Australia, the Eucalyptus Sideroxylon, and in many countries, species of Sideroxylon and Diospyros, and many other trees.

Webster 1913