forged

1. 1
   adjective

   Made by working heated metal into shape with hammering or pressing, rather than by casting.

   Forged steel components resist cracking better than cast parts under repeated stress.

   The craftsman displayed a row of forged hinges at the market stall.

   Similarwrought, hammered

   Oppositecast

2. 2
   adjective

   Produced or altered to imitate the genuine article, especially a document, in order to deceive.

   The auction house withdrew the canvas after discovering a forged signature.

   Investigators traced the forged banknotes to a basement workshop.

   Similarfake, counterfeit, falsified, bogus, fraudulent

   Oppositegenuine, authentic, real

   Note

   Only context separates this from the blacksmith's meaning. Forged steel is genuine work, but forged papers are a deception. Both meanings come from one verb, which can mean making by skill or fabricating falsely. This sense attaches to documents, signatures and identity papers. Brian Hayes uses it in American Scientist (2013) when he recounts the young Benoit Mandelbrot being sent off alone with forged papers.

3. 3
   verb

   Past participle of forge.

   The hikers had forged through deep snow to reach the cabin.

   By dawn the troops had forged across the river under heavy fire.

   Note

   A participle that has left the anvil behind: here the verb means pushing on against resistance, and it takes no object. It nearly always travels with a word of direction, as in forged ahead, forged through, forged across or forged forward, often in the perfect (had forged). The verb was first used of ships moving heavily, which explains its slow, effortful feel. Sometimes, though, it marks a sudden burst of speed instead.

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