• Finery

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈfaɪnəɹi/

    Full definition of finery

    Noun

    finery

    (countable and uncountable; plural finerys)
    1. (obsolete) Fineness; beauty.
    2. Ornament; decoration; especially, excessive decoration; showy clothes; jewels.
    3. (ironworking) A charcoal hearth or furnace for the conversion of cast iron into wrought iron, or into iron suitable for puddling.
      • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 160:In front of the finery hearth in which the sow is melted down again, the finer is working with a long iron bar called a ringer (from French 'ringard') with which he keeps the molten iron in motion by stirring, an essential stage in the process of refining.

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