What does "forge" mean?
Forge: The works where wrought iron is produced directly from the ore, or where iron is rendered malleable by puddling and shingling; a shingling mill.
Additional senses
- 2.The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of metalic bodies. [Obs.] In the greater bodies the forge was easy. Bacon. American forge, a forge for the direct production of wrought iron, differing from the old Catalan forge mainly in using finely crushed ore and working continuously. Raymond. -- Catalan forge. (Metal.) See under Catalan. -- Forge cinder, the dross or slag form a forge or bloomary. -- Forge rolls, Forge train, the train of rolls by which a bloom is converted into puddle bars. -- Forge wagon (Mil.), a wagon fitted up for transporting a blackmith's forge and tools. -- Portable forge, a light and compact blacksmith's forge, with bellows, etc., that may be moved from place to place.
- 3.To form by heating and hammering; to beat into any particular shape, as a metal. Mars's armor forged for proof eterne. Shak.
- 4.To form or shape out in any way; to produce; to frame; to invent. Those names that the schools forged, and put into the mouth of scholars, could never get admittance into common use. Locke. Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves. Tennyson.
- 5.To coin. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- 6.To make falsely; to produce, as that which is untrue or not genuine; to fabricate; to counterfeit, as, a signature, or a signed document. That paltry story is untrue, And forged to cheat such gulls as you. Hudibras. Forged certificates of his . . . moral character. Macaulay.
- 7.To commit forgery.
- 8.(Naut.) To move heavily and slowly, as a ship after the sails are furled; to work one's way, as one ship in outsailing another; -- used especially in the phrase to forge ahead. Totten. And off she [a ship] forged without a shock. De Quincey.
- 9.To impel forward slowly; as, to forge a ship forward.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00