Definition of "blast furnace" []

• A furnace in which combustion is intensified by a blast of air, especially a furnace for smelting iron by blowing air through a hot mixture of ore, coke, and flux. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The meanest blast furnace ever built doesn't come close to reproducing the heat a meteoroid feels when it hits our atmosphere."
• "After another twenty minutes pistoning my legs along this blast furnace of a road, I see a group of motorbikers passing me on their way to the Maze District of Canyonlands."
• "Tiny Bulcher, the blast furnace that walks like a man."