iron curtain Hear it!

iron curtain definition

iron curtain

  1. a barrier of secrecy and censorship regarded as isolating the Soviet Union and other countries in its sphere: often with the
  2. a similar barrier to information in other regions

Etymology: prob. calque of Ger eiserner vorhang, as used by Joseph Goebbels: popularized by Sir Winston Churchill in a speech (1946)

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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