running iron
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English
[edit]Noun
[edit]running iron (plural running irons)
- A branding iron which is not bent into the shape of the mark but rather requires the user to write the desired brand (and thus allows writing any brand).
- 2007, Philip Ashton Rollins, The Cowboy, page 183:
- So flagrantly did these gentlemen miswield the “running iron,” that several States eventually forbade its use by anybody, and everywhere its mere possession gave rise to suspicion.