American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light and is accompanied by flame, especially the exothermic oxidation of a combustible substance.
- n. Burning fuel or other material: a cooking fire; a forest fire.
- n. Burning intensity of feeling; ardor. See Synonyms at passion.
- n. Enthusiasm.
- n. Luminosity or brilliance, as of a cut and polished gemstone.
- n. Liveliness and vivacity of imagination; brilliance.
- n. A severe test; a trial or torment.
- n. A fever or bodily inflammation.
- n. The discharge of firearms or artillery: heard the fire of cannon.
- n. The launching of a missile, rocket, or similar ballistic body.
- n. Discharged bullets or other projectiles: subjected enemy positions to heavy mortar fire; struck by rifle fire.
- n. Intense, repeated attack or criticism: answered the fire from her political critics.
- v. To cause to burn; ignite.
- v. To light (something) up as if by fire: The morning sun fired the tops of the trees.
- v. To add fuel to (something burning).
- v. To maintain or fuel a fire in.
- v. To start (a fuel-burning engine). Often used with up.
- v. To bake in a kiln: fire pottery.
- v. To dry by heating.
- v. To arouse the emotions of; make enthusiastic or ardent. Often used with up: warriors who were fired by patriotism.
- v. To discharge (a firearm, for example).
- v. To detonate (an explosive).
- v. To propel (a projectile); launch (a missile).
- v. Informal To throw with force and speed; hurl: fire a ball at a batter.
- v. To utter or direct with insistence: fired questions at the senator.
- v. Games To score (a number) in a game or contest.
- v. To discharge from a position; dismiss. See Synonyms at dismiss.
- v. To become ignited; flame up.
- v. To become excited or ardent.
- v. To become angry or annoyed.
- v. To tend a fire.
- v. To shoot a weapon: aimed and fired at the target.
- v. To detonate an explosive.
- v. To ignite fuel, as in an engine.
- v. Informal To project or hurl a missile: The pitcher wound up and fired.
- v. Physiology To generate an electrical impulse. Used of a neuron.
- v. To become yellowed or brown before reaching maturity, as grain.
- fire away Informal To start to talk or ask questions.
- fire off To utter or ask rapidly.
- fire off To write and send (a letter, for example) in haste.
- idiom. between two fires Being attacked from two sources or sides simultaneously.
- idiom. on fire Ignited; ablaze.
- idiom. on fire Filled with enthusiasm or excitement.
- idiom. start Slang To urge or goad to action.
- idiom. under fire Exposed or subjected to enemy attack.
- idiom. under fire Exposed or subjected to critical attack or censure: an official who was under fire for mismanagement.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The visible heat, or light, evolved by the action of a high temperature on certain bodies, which are in consequence styled inflammable or combustible; combustion, or the heat and light evolved during the process of combustion. Anciently, fire, air, earth, and water were regarded as the four elements of which all things are composed; and fire continued until comparatively recent times to be considered a distinct imponderable substance, existing throughout the universe in the supposed form of caloric. See combustion, flame.
- n. Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth or the ground, or in a grate, stove, or furnace; a burning mass of material lighted for the sake of warmth or for the utilization of the heat or light from it.
- n. The burning of any large collection of material, as a building, town, forest, etc.; a conflagration: as, the great fire of London or of Chicago; a forest or a prairie fire.
- n. A spark or sparks; specifically, a spark, as from red-hot iron, or from flint or other stones when struck.
- n. Flashing light; vivid luster; splendor.
- n. In precious stones, the quality of refracting and dispersing light, and the brilliancy of effect that comes from this quality.
- n. A luminous body; a star.
- n. A sensation of internal heat arising from either a physical or a mental cause; an inflammatory process or effect.
- n. Ardor; burning desire; passionate love for something.
- n. Consuming violence, as of temper; fierceness; vehemence: as, the fire of love or of enmity.
- n. Liveliness of imagination; vigor of fancy; force of sentiment or expression; capacity for ardor and zeal; animation; vivacity.
- n. Subjection to evil effects of any kind; especially, overwhelming trouble; severe trial: used with reference to the old or savage practice of trial or torture by fire, and especially to the passing through the fire to Moloch mentioned in the Bible: as, to pass through or be subjected to the fires of affliction.
- n. [⟨ fire, v. t., 6.] The firing or discharge of firearms; the discharge of a number of firearms, as rifles, muskets, or cannon, from a body of troops, a battery, or the like: as, to be under fire; to silence the enemy's fire; enfilade and ricochet fire, etc. Artillery fire is said to be direct when the line of fire is perpendicular to the line aimed at, and the projectile does not touch the intermediate ground; oblique when the line of fire makes an angle less than 90° with the front of the object; enfilading when the line of fire is nearly parallel to the parapet or line of troops to be swept; reverse when the line of fire forms a horizontal angle greater than 30° with the interior slope of the parapet or the line of troops exposed to its effects; slant when the angle made with the interior slope is less than 30°; horizontal when the piece has but a small angle of elevation and the projectile strikes the object without striking the intermediate ground; vertical when the piece has a great angle of elevation, as in the case of mortars; ricochet when the elevation is slight and the projectile strikes the earth or water and rebounds one or more times (used chiefly with reduced charges for enfilading purposes); rolling when the axis of the piece is parallel to the ground, or nearly so, and the projectile makes a series of ricochets; plunging when the piece is situated above the plane of the object fired at.
- n. A fire kindled with the object of leading a ship to destruction; a false or misleading beacon.
- n. A fire burning chiefly in the interior of the mass of fuel, so as to avoid waste of the coal by combustion on the outside, where it is not in contact with the metal. For the common blacksmith's fire semi-bituminous coal is preferred.
- n. Figuratively, to make fiery; inflame; excite violently.
- n. Figuratively, to become inflamed; be violently excited or aroused.
- To set on fire; enkindle: as, to fire a house or a chimney; to fire a pile.
- To expose to the action of fire; prepare by the application of heat; bake: as, to fire pottery; to fire a slack of bricks.
- To inflame; irritate the feelings or passions of: as, to fire one with anger or revenge.
- To animate; give life or spirit to.
- To drive out or away by fire.
- To subject to explosion or explosive force by the application of fire (usually in the form of spark, variously produced); discharge, send forth, or break up by explosion: as, to fire a gun or pistol; to fire a cannon-ball or a shell; to fire a blast or a mine.
- To throw as a missile.
- In veterinary surgery, to cauterize.
- To illuminate strongly; make to shine as if on fire.
- To eject, dismiss, or expel forcibly or peremptorily: commonly with out. See to fire out
- To eject, expel, or dismiss forcibly or peremptorily; discharge from employment; bounce: in allusion to the discharge of a cannon-ball.
- To take fire; be kindled.
- To be or become heated, irritated, or inflamed: as, his feet fire easily in walking.
- To become excited; become irritated or inflamed with passion. See to fire up , below.
- To discharge artillery or firearms: as, they fired on the town.
- To discharge or throw a missile or missiles.
- To ring all the bells in a peal at once.
- To become irritated or angry; fly into a passion.
- In geology, to break out in flames or incandescent gases: said of volcanoes.
- n. uncountable A (usually self-sustaining) chemical reaction involving the bonding of oxygen with carbon or other fuel, with the production of heat and the presence of flame or smouldering.
- n. countable Something that has produced or is capable of producing this chemical reaction, such as a campfire.
- n. countable The often accidental occurrence of fire in a certain place leading to its full or partial destruction.
- n. uncountable, alchemy One of the four basic elements.
- n. China, India and Japan One of the five basic elements (see Wikipedia article on the Classical elements).
- n. countable, UK A heater or stove used in place of a real fire (such as an electric fire).
- n. countable The elements necessary to start a fire.
- n. uncountable The in-flight bullets or other projectiles shot from a gun.
- n. countable A button (of a joypad, joystick or similar device) whose only or main current function is that when it is pressed causes a video game character to fire a weapon.
- v. transitive To set (something) on fire.
- v. transitive To heat without setting on fire, as ceramic, metal objects, etc.
- v. transitive To drive away by setting a fire.
- v. transitive To terminate the employment contract of (an employee), especially for cause (such as misconduct or poor performance).
- v. transitive To shoot (a device that launches a projectile or a pulse of stream of something).
- v. intransitive To shoot a gun, a cannon or a similar weapon.
- v. transitive, sports To shoot; to attempt to score a goal.
- v. intransitive, physiology To cause an action potential in a cell.
- v. transitive To forcibly direct (something).
- v. intransitive, software engineering To initiate an event (by means of an event handler)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The evolution of light and heat in the combustion of bodies; combustion; state of ignition.
- n. Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth, or in a stove or a furnace.
- n. The burning of a house or town; a conflagration.
- n. Anything which destroys or affects like fire.
- n. Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth; consuming violence of temper.
- n. Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal.
- n. Splendor; brilliancy; luster; hence, a star.
- n. Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.
- n. The discharge of firearms; firing.
- v. To set on fire; to kindle
- v. To subject to intense heat; to bake; to burn in a kiln.
- v. To inflame; to irritate, as the passions.
- v. To animate; to give life or spirit to.
- v. To feed or serve the fire of.
- v. To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.
- v. To cause to explode; ; to disharge
- v. obsolete To drive by fire.
- v. (Far.) To cauterize.
- v. to dismiss from employment, a post, or other job; to cause (a person) to cease being an employee; -- of a person. The act of
firingis usually performed by that person's supervisor or employer.
- v. To take fire; to be kindled; to kindle.
- v. To be irritated or inflamed with passion.
- v. To discharge artillery or firearms.
- v. call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses)
- n. fuel that is burning and is used as a means for cooking
- v. bake in a kiln so as to harden
- v. provide with fuel
- n. intense adverse criticism
- v. start firing a weapon
- n. the event of something burning (often destructive)
- n. a fireplace in which a relatively small fire is burning
- v. drive out or away by or as if by fire
- n. once thought to be one of four elements composing the universe (Empedocles)
- v. go off or discharge
- n. feelings of great warmth and intensity
- v. terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position
- n. a severe trial
- n. the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke
- n. the act of firing weapons or artillery at an enemy
- v. cause to go off
- v. destroy by fire
- From Middle English fier, from Old English fȳr ("fire"), from West Germanic *fuïr, a regularised form of Proto-Germanic *fōr (“fire”) (compare Saterland Frisian Fjuur, West Frisian fjoer, Dutch vuur, Low German Für, German Feuer, Danish fyr), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂ur (compare Hittite 𒉺𒀪𒄯 (paḫḫur), Umbrian pir, Tocharian A/B por/puwar, Czech pȳř ("hot ashes"), Ancient Greek πῦρ (pŷr, "fire"), Armenian հուր (hur, "fire")) and perhaps Albanian prush ("embers"). This was an inanimate noun whose animate counterpart was Proto-Indo-European *h₁ngʷnis, *h₁ngʷni-. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English fir, from Old English fȳr; see paəwr̥ in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“The fire itself is referred to as the fire incident.”
“For example, utter the words: "A house is my fire," and observe the comparative duration of time in the pronunciation of each word, the comparative stress, and the relative pitch (e.g. of _a_ and _fire_).”
“On her return, seeing her mistress on fire, she immediately gave an alarm; and some people coming to her assistance, one of them endeavored to extinguish the flames with his hands, _but they adhered to them as if they had been dipped in brandy or oil on fire_.”
“A stranger might suppose the buildings on fire, but not a blaze is within, the object here, as in bacon-curing, being _smoke_, not _fire_.”
“Sioux cheti to build a fire, chewati I build a fire; shuta to miss, shuunta-pi we miss.”
“But, a final objection is raised, as on this view of the matter the elements -- earth, water and fire -- which are eaten and drunk, are already tripartite, each of them containing portions of all, and thus are of a threefold nature, how can they be designated each of them by a simple term -- _earth_, _water_, _fire_?”
“By morning the repair was accomplished, the leak was stopped, and in thirty hours the fire was again in the boiler; _and all the time the south wind blew so mildly that there was not the least need of a fire_.”
“The fire admits of easy regulation, the ashes may be removed and the fuel may be supplied without _checking the fire_.”
“It remains, then, that you be committed to the fire, which shall consume the light materials; for our God, to those who can comprehend heavenly things, is called a _consuming fire_.”
“If we find _agni_, meaning fire, in Sanskrit, and _ignis_, meaning fire, in Latin, we may safely conclude that _fire_ was known to the undivided Aryans, even if no trace of the same name of fire occurred anywhere else.”
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