iron cage
- noun
- /ˈaɪərn keɪdʒ/
- Formal
:
jaula de hierro
- In the oppressive regime, many citizens felt trapped in an iron cage of fear and control.
Examples
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He felt trapped in an iron cage of bureaucracy.
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Many critics describe modern society as an iron cage that limits individual choice.
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She realized she was living in an iron cage of expectations imposed by her family.
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The bureaucracy can feel like an iron cage, restricting creativity and freedom.
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The iron cage of social expectations suffocated her creativity.
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The new policies created an iron cage that restricted our freedoms and made it difficult to express our opinions.
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For those working in the bureaucracy, daily life felt like being stuck in an iron cage, with endless rules and no room for creativity.
Synonyms
223
5.6
A place or situation that makes someone feel trapped
150
5.7
A situation that limits a person's freedom or movement
1
8.1
A comfortable but limiting situation that traps someone
A situation you cannot escape from
A situation where people feel trapped by what others think they should do
Antonyms
How Trapped
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense is directly built from the constituents: 'cage' conveys restriction of freedom and 'iron' indicates strength/impermeability, so 'iron cage' straightforwardly evokes a very strong enclosure or trap. This compositional metaphor (a strong/inescapable enclosure) is easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both words and is cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Iron cage brings to mind a heavy metal cage made of iron that you cannot bend or get out of. That's why people use it to say someone feels 'trapped' with 'no escape' by strict rules, jobs, or expectations.