tire iron

noun

1. a short length of steel with one end flattened to form a blade, used as a crowbar for removing tires from wheel rims.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tire iron¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

He tells me he beat a Black boy with a tire iron and how if I keep getting in his way, that’ll happen to me.

From Los Angeles Times

The four were also charged with robbing a man and beating him with a tire iron in 1976.

From Los Angeles Times

Among other missteps, they texted each other about their exploits and cashed thousands of dimes through Coinstar machines after prying them out of a truck with tire irons.

From New York Times

The faces are at once classically familiar and deeply strange, like Northern Renaissance portraiture pushed through a Cubist sieve, Hans Memling’s “Portrait of Barbara van Vlaendenbergh” worked over with a tire iron.

From New York Times

For these drivers, carmakers may safely assume that a can of Fix-a-Flat will be more useful than a spare, a jack and a tire iron.

From Los Angeles Times