Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a pair of metal supports used for holding up logs in a fireplace.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a pair of metallic stands used to support wood burned on an open hearth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A utensil for supporting wood when burning in a fireplace, one being placed on each side; a firedog.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A utensil for supporting wood when burning in a fireplace, one being placed on each side; a firedog; as, a pair of andirons.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun metal supports for logs in a fireplace

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aundiren, alteration (influenced by Middle English iren, iron) of Old French andier, probably from Gaulish *anderos, young bull (andirons often being decorated with ornaments shaped like the heads of animals); akin to Welsh anner, heifer.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English anderne (aunderne, aundyre), from Old French andier (mod. landier), from Gaulish anderon 'calf' (compare Irish ainnir 'young woman', Welsh anner 'heifer, cow-calf', enderig 'bull-calf, ox', Breton annoar 'heifer, cow-calf'), because calves rather than dogs figured prominently on ancient Celtic firedogs. Altered in form under the unfluence of iron.

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Examples

  • Under his government industry flourished,and the mines and smokestacks of the Ruhr supplied his régime with the coal and the steel which, even more than blood andiron, underwrote the prosperity of the Reich.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871 MICHAEL KNOX BERAN 2007

  • Under his government industry flourished,and the mines and smokestacks of the Ruhr supplied his régime with the coal and the steel which, even more than blood andiron, underwrote the prosperity of the Reich.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871 MICHAEL KNOX BERAN 2007

  • Under his government industry flourished,and the mines and smokestacks of the Ruhr supplied his régime with the coal and the steel which, even more than blood andiron, underwrote the prosperity of the Reich.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871 MICHAEL KNOX BERAN 2007

  • Under his government industry flourished,and the mines and smokestacks of the Ruhr supplied his régime with the coal and the steel which, even more than blood andiron, underwrote the prosperity of the Reich.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871 MICHAEL KNOX BERAN 2007

  • Under his government industry flourished,and the mines and smokestacks of the Ruhr supplied his régime with the coal and the steel which, even more than blood andiron, underwrote the prosperity of the Reich.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871 MICHAEL KNOX BERAN 2007

  • She watched him commune with the stone for a few moments, then examined the andiron more closely.

    Sonnet of the Sphinx Diana Killian 2006

  • She tried tugging on a tall, ornate sphinx-shaped andiron.

    Sonnet of the Sphinx Diana Killian 2006

  • Grace was bearing down on the left andiron, shoving it toward the floor.

    Sonnet of the Sphinx Diana Killian 2006

  • Then from the kitchen appeared Hristo with what looked like part of an andiron set with narrow pincers made for grabbing thin kindling, glowing bright orange.

    Jean Georges: 784 masterfulillian stars 2006

  • Then from the kitchen appeared Hristo with what looked like part of an andiron set with narrow pincers made for grabbing thin kindling, glowing bright orange.

    become a regular 2006

Comments

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  • Andirons of brass, nearly six feet high, flanked the hearthstone.

    - Frank Norris, The Octopus, bk 2, ch. 8

    August 29, 2008