forge

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A furnace or hearth where metals are heated or wrought; a smithy.
2. n. A workshop where pig iron is transformed into wrought iron.
3. v. To form (metal, for example) by heating in a forge and beating or hammering into shape.
4. v. To form (metal) by a mechanical or hydraulic press.
5. v. To give form or shape to, especially by means of careful effort: forge a treaty; forge a close relationship.
6. v. To fashion or reproduce for fraudulent purposes; counterfeit: forge a signature.
7. v. To work at a forge or smithy.
8. v. To make a forgery or counterfeit.
9. v. To advance gradually but steadily: forged ahead through throngs of shoppers.
10. v. To advance with an abrupt increase of speed: forged into first place with seconds to go.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In general, a place where anything is made, shaped, or devised; a workshop.
2. n. Specifically An open fireplace or furnace, fitted with a bellows or some other appliance for obtaining a blast to urge the fire, and serving to heat metal in order that it may be hammered into form. Forges are of many shapes and sizes, ranging from small hand-furnaces heated with gas, for jewelers' use, to the largest furnaces for heating heavy forgings to be treated with a steam-hammer. They are sometimes portable, or mounted on wheels to be moved from place to place, as in the battery-forge. Military forges include an anvil and other appliances.
3. n. A smithy or works where forging is done.
4. n. Any large iron-working shop.
5. n. The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of objects in metal.
6. n. A sort of hearth or furnace in which malleable iron is made directly from the ore, by the so-called “direct process.” For carrying on this process successfully the ore must be rich and fusible, and charcoal (the only fuel employed) be obtainable at a moderate price. Various modifications of the forge were, and some of them still are, in use to a limited extent under the names of “Catalan,” “Biscayan,” and “Navarrese” forges. This process is also in use in America on Lake Champlain, and in the Lake Superior iron regions. The forge there employed does not differ much from the Catalan. Establishments of this kind are frequently called “bloomeries.” See bloomery, and Catalan furnace, under furnace.
7. To form by heating in a forge and hammering; beat into some particular shape, as a mass of metal.
8. To form or shape out in any way; make by any means; invent.
9. To fabricate by false imitation; specifically, in law, to make a false instrument (including every alteration of or addition to a true instrument) in similitude of an instrument by which one person could be obligated to another, with criminal intent, for the purpose of fraud and deceit: as, to forge coin; to forge a writing. See forgery, and compare counterfeit, n., 2.
10. Synonyms To hammer out.
11. To fabricate, frame, manufacture, coin.
12. To commit forgery.
13. To move ahead slowly, with difficulty, or by mere momentum: said properly of a vessel, but also of other things: commonly with ahead. See ahead.
14. In farriery, to strike the heel of the front shoe with the toe of the hind shoe, producing a clicking sound.

Wiktionary

1. n. Furnace or hearth where metals are heated prior to hammering them into shape.
2. n. Workshop in which metals are shaped by heating and hammering them.
3. v. metallurgy To shape a metal by heating and hammering.
4. v. To form or create with concerted effort.
5. v. To create a forgery of; to make a counterfeit item of; to copy or imitate unlawfully.
6. v. To move forward heavily and slowly (originally as a ship); to advance gradually but steadily; to proceed towards a goal in the face of resistance or difficulty.
7. v. To advance, move or act with an abrupt increase in speed or energy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A place or establishment where iron or other metals are wrought by heating and hammering; especially, a furnace, or a shop with its furnace, etc., where iron is heated and wrought; a smithy.
2. n. The works where wrought iron is produced directly from the ore, or where iron is rendered malleable by puddling and shingling; a shingling mill.
3. n. obsolete The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of metallic bodies.
4. v. To form by heating and hammering; to beat into any particular shape, as a metal.
5. v. To form or shape out in any way; to produce; to frame; to invent.
6. v. obsolete To coin.
7. v. To make falsely; to produce, as that which is untrue or not genuine; to fabricate; to counterfeit, as, a signature, or a signed document.
8. v. To commit forgery.
9. v. (Naut.) To move heavily and slowly, as a ship after the sails are furled; to work one's way, as one ship in outsailing another; -- used especially in the phrase to forge ahead.
10. v. (Naut.) To impel forward slowly.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. move ahead steadily
2. v. move or act with a sudden increase in speed or energy
3. v. make something, usually for a specific function
4. v. create by hammering
5. v. make a copy of with the intent to deceive
6. n. furnace consisting of a special hearth where metal is heated before shaping
7. v. make out of components (often in an improvising manner)
8. n. a workplace where metal is worked by heating and hammering
9. v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort