In civilian use, sheet iron is simply thin flat iron rolled into sheets — a basic industrial material.
In civilian use, sheet iron is simply thin flat iron rolled into sheets — a basic industrial material. But in military slang, particularly among soldiers who endured it, "sheet iron" was a derogatory nickname for hardtack, the rock-hard crackers issued as field rations. The comparison was brutally apt: hardtack was notoriously nearly inedible without soaking, and soldiers joked bitterly that eating it risked breaking teeth.
After a week in the field, even the sheet iron they called rations started to seem almost edible.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(uncountable, countable, metallurgy) Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.
(uncountable) A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when untarnished, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel: a chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.
(transitive) To make (something) flat or smooth as if with an iron.
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sheet metal consisting of iron.
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(derogatory, military slang) hardtack.
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