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iron curtain

 Origin

iron curtain

 
noun
1.
(sometimes initial capital letters) a barrier to understanding and the exchange of information and ideas created by ideological, political, and military hostility of one country toward another, especially such a barrier between the Soviet Union and its allies and other countries.
2.
an impenetrable barrier to communication or information, especially as imposed by rigid censorship and secrecy.
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Origin:
used by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe the line of demarcation between Western Europe and the Soviet zone of influence
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Iron curtain is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
Iron Curtain
 
—n
a.  (formerly) the guarded border between the countries of the Soviet bloc and the rest of Europe
 b.  (as modifier): Iron Curtain countries

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

Iron Curtain
in ref. to the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, famously coined by Churchill March 5, 1946, in speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, but it had been used earlier in this context (e.g. by U.S. bureaucrat Allen W. Dulles at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dec. 3, 1945). The
EXPAND
fig. sense of "impenetrable barrier" is attested from 1819, and the specific sense of "barrier at the edge of the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union" is recorded from 1920. During World War II, Goebbels used in in Ger. (ein eiserner Vorhang) in the same sense.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

Iron Curtain definition


The former division between the communist nations of eastern Europe — the Eastern Bloc — and the noncommunist nations of western Europe. The term refers to the isolation that the Soviet Union imposed on its satellites in the Eastern Bloc and to the repressive measures of many Eastern Bloc governments. (See Berlin Wall and cold war.)

Note: The expression Iron Curtain was coined by Winston Churchill, who was prime minister of Britain in World War II. Churchill first used the term soon after the war, when the Soviet Union was beginning to carry out its plans for postwar dominance of eastern Europe.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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