iron maiden

1. 1.

   instrument of torture consisting of a hollow iron frame shaped like the human body and lined with spikes to impale the victim

   Broaderinstrument of torture

Questions about iron maiden

What does iron maiden mean?

iron maiden means "instrument of torture consisting of a hollow iron frame shaped like the human body and lined with spikes to impale the victim".

Is iron maiden a common word?

iron maiden is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.