Flatirons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Heavy metal tools heated and used to press wrinkles out of fabric ; the steep tilted sandstone ridges rising west of Boulder, Colorado
2. Old-fashioned heated irons with a wedge-shaped base used for smoothing cloth ; a famous range of slanted red rock slabs in Colorado near Boulder
3. Weighty wedge-shaped irons that were heated to press garments ; the tilted sandstone cliffs that tower above the city of Boulder in Colorado

Etymology: "Flatirons" is the plural of "flatiron," a compound of "flat" and "iron." The "flat" refers to the iron's shape: a smooth, flat-bottomed metal block that was heated and pressed over cloth to smooth out wrinkles. Before electric irons, that heavy slab was the tool of the laundry, and the name describes it exactly, with no metaphor involved. The plural form is the one most readers will meet, since "flatirons" usually refers to a set of these tools rather than a single iron. The compound follows the familiar pattern of naming an object by its most visible feature, much like "pancake" or "flagstone," where the description does the naming work.