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anvil . In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
anvil , but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
anvil in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
anvil you have here. The definition of the word
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English
An anvil
Micrometer: note the anvil on the left
Etymology
From Middle English anfilt , anvelt , anfelt , from late Old English anfilt , anfilte , anfealt , from earlier onfilti ( “ anvil ” ) , from Proto-West Germanic *anafalt (compare Middle Dutch anvilte , Low German Anfilts , Anefilt , Old High German anafalz ), compound of *ana ( “ on ” ) + *falt ( “ beaten ” ) (compare German falzen ( “ to groove, fold, welt ” ) , Swedish dialectal filta ( “ to beat ” ) ), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-t- ( “ shaken, beaten ” ) (compare Middle Irish lethar ( “ leather ” ) , Latin pellō ( “ to beat, strike ” ) , Ancient Greek πάλλω ( pállō , “ to toss, brandish ” ) ), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- ( “ to stir, move ” ) . More at felon .
Pronunciation
Noun
anvil (plural anvils )
A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio ), London: Isaac Iaggard , and Ed Blount , published 1623 , →OCLC , :I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news [ …]
1794, William Blake , “The Tyger ,” lines 15-16,
What the anvil ? what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
1839 , Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , “[Miscellaneous.] The Village Blacksmith .”, in Ballads and Other Poems , 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: John Owen, published 1842 , →OCLC , stanza 8, page 102 :Thus at the flaming forge of life / Our fortunes must be wrought; / Thus on its sounding anvil shaped / Each burning deed and thought!
1875–1876 , Gerard Manley Hopkins , “The Wreck of the Deutschland ”, in Robert Bridges , editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published , London: Humphrey Milford , published 1918 , →OCLC , part 1, stanza 10, page 14 :With an anvil -ding / And with fire in him forge thy will / Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring / Through him, melt him but master him still: [...]
( anatomy ) The incus bone in the middle ear .
A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails .
The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
( meteorology ) A horizontal-topped mass of cloud , shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm .
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
block used in blacksmithing
Abkhaz: аԥсангьари́ ( apsangʲarí )
Afrikaans: aambeeld (af)
Albanian: kudhër (sq)
Arabic: سَنْدان m ( sandān ) , سِنْدَان m ( sindān )
Armenian: զնդան (hy) ( zndan ) , սալ (hy) ( sal )
Asturian: xunque m
Azerbaijani: zindan , dəmirçi zindanı
Bashkir: һандал ( handal ) , түш ( tüş )
Basque: ingude
Belarusian: кава́дла n ( kavádla )
Bengali: নিহাই (bn) ( nihai )
Breton: annev (br) f
Bulgarian: накова́лня (bg) f ( nakoválnja )
Buryat: дүшэ ( düše )
Catalan: enclusa (ca) f
Cebuano: yungki
Chechen: нуьйжа ( nüüža )
Cherokee: ᎠᏐᏗᏔᎷᎩᏍᎩᎤᎵᎩ ( asoditalugisgiuligi )
Chinese:
Cantonese: 鐵砧 / 铁砧 ( tit3 zam1 )
Mandarin: 鐵砧 / 铁砧 (zh) ( tiězhēn )
Chuvash: сунтал ( sunt̬al )
Cornish: anwan f
Crimean Tatar: gürsü
Czech: kovadlina (cs) f
Dalmatian: ancusene f
Danish: ambolt (da) c
Dutch: aambeeld (nl) n , aanbeeld (nl) n
Esperanto: amboso
Estonian: alasi (et)
Faroese: stiði m , steðji m , amboltur m
Finnish: alasin (fi)
French: enclume (fr) f
Friulian: incuin , lincuin
Galician: bigornia (gl) f , engra (gl) f , incle m , ingre m , zafra f
Georgian: გრდემლი (ka) ( grdemli )
German: Amboss (de) m
Greek: αμόνι (el) n ( amóni )
Ancient: ἄκμων m ( ákmōn ) , μύδρος m ( múdros )
Gujarati: એરણ (gu) f ( eraṇ )
Hebrew: סַדָּן (he) m ( sadán )
Hindi: निहाई (hi) f ( nihāī )
Hungarian: üllő (hu)
Icelandic: steðji m , ambolti m
Indonesian: tulang landasan (id) , paron (id)
Ingrian: alaisin , alain
Irish: inneoin f
Italian: incudine (it) f
Japanese: 金床 (ja) ( かなとこ, kanatoko )
Javanese: landesan , paron
Kalmyk: дәш ( däş )
Kazakh: төс ( tös )
Korean: 모루 ( moru )
Kyrgyz: дөшү (ky) ( döşü )
Latin: incūs f
Latvian: lakta (lv) f
Lithuanian: priekalas
Macedonian: накова́лна f ( nakoválna )
Malay: andas (ms) , landasan (ms) , paron
Maori: paekuru
Marathi: ऐरण f ( airaṇ )
Middle English: anvelt , stith , stithy
Mongolian: дөш (mn) ( döš )
Nogai: сандал ( sandal )
Norwegian: ambolt (no) m , ste (no) n
Occitan: enclutge (oc) m
Old East Slavic: ковальнꙗ ( kovalĭnja )
Old Norse: steði m
Ottoman Turkish: اورس ( örs ) , سندان ( sindân )
Persian: سندان (fa) ( sendân )
Plautdietsch: Aumbolt m
Polish: kowadło (pl) n
Portuguese: bigorna (pt) f
Punjabi: ਅਹਰਣ f pl ( aharaṇ )
Romanian: nicovală (ro) , ilău (ro)
Romansch: mazza f , mass , massa , inchüna , anchüna
Russian: накова́льня (ru) f ( nakoválʹnja )
Sardinian: incódina , incódine , incúdina , incúdine , incútine , alcútina , ancódina
Scots: studdy
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: наковањ m
Roman: nakovanj (sh) m
Sicilian: ncùnia (scn) f
Sindhi: سَنداڻُ (sd) ( sandāṇ )
Slovak: nákova f
Slovene: nakovalo n
Sorbian:
Upper Sorbian: ambos m , nakowa f
Spanish: yunque (es) m , bigornia (es) f
Sudovian: preikalis
Swahili: fuawe (sw)
Swedish: städ (sv) n
Tagalog: palihan
Tamil: பட்டடை (ta) ( paṭṭaṭai )
Tatar: сандал (tt) ( sandal )
Telugu: దాగిలి ( dāgili )
Thai: ทั่ง (th) ( tâng )
Turkish: örs (tr)
Turkmen: sandal
Tuvan: дөжү ( döjü )
Ukrainian: кова́дло (uk) f ( kovádlo )
Uzbek: sandon (uz)
Venetan: ancùxene (vec) f , encuzen f , incuzene f , incuxene f , ancuzen f
Vietnamese: (cái) đe (vi)
Walloon: (please verify ) eglome (wa) f , (please verify ) egloume (wa) f
Welsh: einion f
Yakut: кыстык ( kıstık )
Yiddish: קאָוואַדלע f ( kovadle )
Verb
anvil (third-person singular simple present anvils , present participle anvilling or anviling , simple past and past participle anvilled or anviled )
( transitive , often figurative ) To fashion on, or as if on, an anvil .
1648 , Abraham Cowley , The Foure Ages of England, or, The Iron Age with Other Select Poems , London, Postscript:I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age , Which I commit, not to your patronage, But skill and Art [ …]
1671 , “A Third Embassy to the Emperor of China and East-Tartary”, in John Ogilby , transl., Atlas Chinensis , London, page 291 :The Family Tang caus’d an Iron Pillar to be erected there of three Rods high, and of a proportionable thickness, Anvil’d out of an intire Piece.
See also
Further reading
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