ironbound

comparative more ironbound · superlative most ironbound

1. Bound with iron, ironclad.
2. figurativelyRugged.

   an ironbound coast

   2 more examples

   He rose and went down to the kitchen, where he knew a fire was burning, and there the terrified servants were all assembled, all agreeing, as the blast came roaring down the chimney, they never had witnessed such a storm, and between the gusts, breathing shuddering prayers for those who were “out at sea that night.” The vicinity of Melmoth’s house to what seamen call an iron-bound coast, gave a dreadful sincerity to their prayers and their fears.

   1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 150

   Leaving behind us the town at the bottom of its deep bay, we set out to explore a bluff-headed parallelogramical promontory, bounded by Thurso Bay on the one hand, and Murkle Bay on the other, and which presents to the open sea, in the space that stretches between, an undulating line of iron-bound coast, exposed to the roll of the northern ocean.

   1857, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey

3. figurativelyRigid, unyielding.

   ironbound traditions