pig iron

pig in the sense “oblong block of cast metal”.

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pig iron (usually uncountable, plural pig irons)

1. A type of crude, brittle iron shaped like a block, unsuitable for working but suitable for casting, commonly used as an industrial raw material.

   Synonym: crude iron

   • 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

     We spent a lot of time up on the staging of the great furnaces, trying to pick up the tricks of the trade from the taciturn furnacemen who sat around placidly smoking, or chewing twist, and occasionally throwing in more pig iron to the molten white-hot metal.

• cast iron
• pig tin
• puddled bar

• “pig iron”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.