iron curtain
noun
1
: a political, military, and ideological barrier that cuts off and isolates an area
specifically, often capitalized
: one formerly isolating an area under Soviet control
2
: an impenetrable barrier
the iron curtain between the ego and the unconscious—
C. J. Rolo
C. J. RoloExamples of iron curtain in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The film, which is set in 1991, sees Holocaust survivor and father (Fry) and stubborn daughter (Dunham) reunite, reconcile and chart a course for Poland to visit the father’s family home the moment the iron curtain falls.
—Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 13 June 2024
With the orchestrated assassination of Alexei Navalny while in captivity, the challenges were never more imperative for the people of Russia to surmount the iron curtain that has expunged democracy and usurped their civil liberties under the guise of internal and external threats.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 14 Mar. 2024
If the United States stopped aiding and protecting fledgling democracies, however, some could disappear behind Beijing’s digital iron curtain.
—Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023
Under this logic, the new iron curtain is being built not by Putin but by the West, which seeks to lock Russians inside their own borders through its sanctions and visa bans.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 9 Sep. 2022
Russia is dropping a digital iron curtain over its population, creating a big, new fracture in the global internet—but there are still big gaps in President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to cut off the country from online information accessible in much of the rest of the world.
—Sam Schechner and Keach Hagey, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2022
And so arguably these are the people that have the most to lose by the expansion of those rights, and the most to gain in a sense by erecting frontiers, erecting a kind of new iron curtain around Europe.
—Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2015
An economic and cultural iron curtain is descending on Russia as President Vladimir Putin proceeds with his invasion of Ukraine, reversing decades of integration with Western economies and threatening to isolate Russians to an extent unseen since the Soviet era.
—Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2022
That unit should always be an iron curtain of talent and toughness.
—Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 17 Sep. 2022
Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 13 June 2024
With the orchestrated assassination of Alexei Navalny while in captivity, the challenges were never more imperative for the people of Russia to surmount the iron curtain that has expunged democracy and usurped their civil liberties under the guise of internal and external threats.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 14 Mar. 2024
If the United States stopped aiding and protecting fledgling democracies, however, some could disappear behind Beijing’s digital iron curtain.
—Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023
Under this logic, the new iron curtain is being built not by Putin but by the West, which seeks to lock Russians inside their own borders through its sanctions and visa bans.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 9 Sep. 2022
Russia is dropping a digital iron curtain over its population, creating a big, new fracture in the global internet—but there are still big gaps in President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to cut off the country from online information accessible in much of the rest of the world.
—Sam Schechner and Keach Hagey, WSJ, 12 Mar. 2022
And so arguably these are the people that have the most to lose by the expansion of those rights, and the most to gain in a sense by erecting frontiers, erecting a kind of new iron curtain around Europe.
—Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2015
An economic and cultural iron curtain is descending on Russia as President Vladimir Putin proceeds with his invasion of Ukraine, reversing decades of integration with Western economies and threatening to isolate Russians to an extent unseen since the Soviet era.
—Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2022
That unit should always be an iron curtain of talent and toughness.
—Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 17 Sep. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'iron curtain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Iron curtain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/iron%20curtain. Accessed 15 Jul. 2024.
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