an·vil / ˈanvil/ • n. a heavy steel or iron block with a flat top, concave sides, and typically a pointed end, on which metal can be hammered and shaped. ∎  the horizontally extended upper part of a cumulonimbus cloud: [as adj.] anvil clouds. ∎  Anat. another term for incus.

anvil

anvil. Perc. instr., imitating real anvil, used in many works, usually operas. In Das Rheingold Wagner uses 18 in 3 sizes to depict the activity in Nibelheim. In Siegfried Act I, Siegfried splits an anvil with the sword Nothung. Real anvils are used in Il trovatore (Verdi), Benvenuto Cellini (Berlioz), Mahler's 6th sym., Bax's 3rd sym., Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, and Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace.

anvil
1. The name commonly applied to the tops of those cumulonimbus clouds that spread in the vicinity of the tropopause into a characteristic anvil-like shape with fibrous edges. The rising column of air in the cumulonimbus cloud is checked by the stable stratification of the air above the tropopause.

2. A flat-topped stone against which a bird smashes the shell of a snail in order to eat the soft parts of its prey.

anvil OE. anfilt(e), anfealt, corr. to MDu. aenvilte, OHG. anafalz, to which are parallel MLG. anebelte, MDu. aen-, anebelt, and OHG. anabōz (G. amboss); all based on Gmc. *ana ON + vb.-stem meaning ‘beat’ (cf. FELT) and perh. all modelled on L. incūs anvil, f. in IN-1 + cūd-, stem of cūdere beat.

anvil Name commonly applied to the tops of those cumulonimbus clouds that spread in the vicinity of the tropopause into a characteristic anvil-like shape with fibrous edges. The rising column of air in the cumulonimbus cloud is checked by the stable stratification of the air above the tropopause.