a. nonce-wd. [f. L. ferr-um iron + -(i)vor-us + -OUS.] Feeding on iron.
1834. Southey, Doctor, cxxviii. And how that of the idiot at Ostend, who died at last in consequence of his appetite for iron, no fewer than eight-and-twenty pieces to the amount of nearly three pounds in weight, having been found in his stomach after death. Who but must acknowledge that he had retained this habit from an ostrich? This poor creature was really ferrivorous.
