iron will
4
4.6
- noun
:
voluntad de hierro
- The coach admired her iron will as she trained tirelessly every day to achieve her goals.
- a man of iron will
We have like this iron will where we're ready to go no matter what.
- We have like this iron will where we're ready to go no matter what.
- But the same time massively impressive that this guy had this kind of iron will.
- If you by yourself have a iron will, then you can just keep going like a machine, OK.
- OK, If you don't have a iron will, you need something that is giving you that is like substituting, for example, this iron will.
Examples
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And, as Orac points out, that's only as long as the person holds to the diet with an iron will, something that very few of us have (or want to depend on even if we have it).
Blog text (28) -
"Decker's lids were dropping despite his iron will to stay awake.
Fiction book (1995) -
The man sitting before them now was a man of iron will and nerves of ice.
Fiction book (1992) -
However, he also had an iron will, undeviating, strong.
-
What a diplomat with an iron will and the grace of a dove.
Blog text (28) -
People like this can and will make progress in spite of inefficient training techniques or programming because they have such great genetic potential and an iron will to work hard.
Blog text (20) -
Gram's iron will ensured Corinne's restraint, and it also ensured that Clark would not escape from her orbit.
Fiction book (1995) -
Thanks to an iron will and a well-timed boost of N2O, Damon wins the race, the car, and his friend's freedom, and finally reaches home plate.
Blog text (9) -
But she belonged with them, he felt; she knew them, as she herself had said, and there was in her an iron will, a resistance to the looser and easier sentiments, that was as remote and forbidding as their efficiencies and their studied refusal of personal warmth or color.
Fiction book (1998) -
Diamond is even more impressive in person—she is tall and gracious, but you don't become a professor at Harvard at her age without having an iron will and a sparkling intelligence.
Fiction book (1996)
Synonyms
871
2.6
Strong determination to do something despite difficulty
295
3.5
A strong wish to achieve something and not give up
92
4.4
Strong determination to do something and not give up
31
6.0
Not giving up when things are hard
5
3.5
Being steady and determined in words and actions
A very firm decision to keep trying
A very strong will to keep trying no matter what
A strong determination not to give up when things are hard
Antonyms
How Determined
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'firm determination' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'iron' (very strong, unyielding) with 'will' (mental determination). The strength-for-character metaphor is common and follows a standard adjective + noun composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Iron will paints a picture of a person's will made of iron, hard and unable to bend. That's why it means 'strong determination' that does not give up.