FIRING
discharge, firing, firing off
(noun) the act of discharging a gun
dismissal, dismission, discharge, firing, liberation, release, sack, sacking
(noun) the termination of someone’s employment (leaving them free to depart)
ignition, firing, lighting, kindling, inflammation
(noun) the act of setting something on fire
fire, firing
(noun) the act of firing weapons or artillery at an enemy; “hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes”; “they retreated in the face of withering enemy fire”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Noun
firing (countable and uncountable, plural firings)
(ceramics) The process of applying heat or fire, especially to clay etc to produce pottery.
The fuel for a fire.
The act of adding fuel to a fire.
The discharge of a gun or other weapon.
The dismissal of someone from a job.
Cauterization.
Verb
firing
present participle of fire
Anagrams
• RIFing
Source: Wiktionary
Fir"ing, n.
1. The act of disharging firearms.
2. The mode of introducing fuel into the furnace and working it.
Knight.
3. The application of fire, or of a cautery. Dunglison.
4. The process of partly vitrifying pottery by exposing it to intense
heat in a kiln.
5. Fuel; firewood or coal. [Obs.] Mortimer. Firing iron, an
instrument used in cauterizing.
FIRE
Fire, n. Etym: [OE. fir, fyr, fur AS. fr; akin to D. vuur, OS. & OHG.
fiur, G. feuer, Icel. f, f, Gr. purus pure, E. pure Cf. Empyrean,
Pyre.]
1. The evolution of light and heat in the combustion of bodies;
combustion; state of ignition.
Note: The form of fire exhibited in the combustion of gases in an
ascending stream or current is called flame. Anciently, fire, air,
earth, and water were regarded as the four elements of which all
things are composed.
2. Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth, or in
3. The burning of a house or town; a conflagration.
4. Anything which destroys or affects like fire.
5. Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth;
consumingviolence of temper.
he had fire in his temper.Atterbury.
6. Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral
enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal.
And bless their critic with a poet's fire.Pope.
7. Splendor; brilliancy; luster; hence, a star.
Stars, hide your fires.Shak.
As in a zodiac
representing the heavenly fires.Milton.
8. Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.
9. The discharge of firearms; firing; as, the troops were exposed to
a heavy fire. Blue fire, Red fire, Green fire (Pyrotech.),
compositions of various combustible substances, as sulphur, niter,
lampblack, etc., the flames of which are colored by various metallic
salts, as those of antimony, strontium, barium, etc.
– Fire alarm (a) A signal given on the breaking out of a fire. (b)
An apparatus for giving such an alarm.
– Fire annihilator, a machine, device, or preparation to be kept at
hand for extinguishing fire by smothering it with some incombustible
vapor or gas, as carbonic acid.
– Fire balloon. (a) A balloon raised in the air by the buoyancy of
air heated by a fire placed in the lower part. (b) A balloon sent up
at night with fireworks which ignite at a regulated height. Simmonds.
– Fire bar, a grate bar.
– Fire basket, a portable grate; a cresset. Knight.
– Fire beetle. (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary.
– Fire blast, a disease of plants which causes them to appear as if
burnt by fire.
– Fire box, the chamber of a furnace, steam boiler, etc., for the
fire.
– Fire brick, a refractory brick, capable of sustaining intense
heat without fusion, usually made of fire clay or of siliceous
material, with some cementing substance, and used for lining fire
boxes, etc.
– Fire brigade, an organized body of men for extinguished fires.
– Fire bucket. See under Bucket.
– Fire bug, an incendiary; one who, from malice or through mania,
persistently sets fire to property; a pyromaniac. [U.S.] -- Fire
clay. See under Clay.
– Fire company, a company of men managing an engine in
extinguishing fires.
– Fire cross. See Fiery cross. [Obs.] Milton.
– Fire damp. See under Damp.
– Fire dog. See Firedog, in the Vocabulary.
– Fire drill. (a) A series of evolutions performed by fireman for
practice. (b) An apparatus for producing fire by friction, by rapidly
twirling a wooden pin in a wooden socket; -- used by the Hindoos
during all historic time, and by many savage peoples.
– Fire eater. (a) A juggler who pretends to eat fire. (b) A
quarrelsome person who seeks affrays; a hotspur. [Colloq.] -- Fire
engine, a portable forcing pump, usually on wheels, for throwing
water to extinguish fire.
– Fire escape, a contrivance for facilitating escape from burning
buildings.
– Fire gilding (Fine Arts), a mode of gilding with an amalgam of
gold and quicksilver, the latter metal being driven off afterward by
heat.
– Fire gilt (Fine Arts), gold laid on by the process of fire
gilding.
– Fire insurance, the act or system of insuring against fire; also,
a contract by which an insurance company undertakes, in consideration
of the payment of a premium or small percentage -- usually made
periodically -- to indemnify an owner of property from loss by fire
during a specified period.
– Fire irons, utensils for a fireplace or grate, as tongs, poker,
and shovel.
– Fire main, a pipe for water, to be used in putting out fire.
– Fire master (Mil), an artillery officer who formerly supervised
the composition of fireworks.
– Fire office, an office at which to effect insurance against fire.
– Fire opal, a variety of opal giving firelike reflections.
– Fire ordeal, an ancient mode of trial, in which the test was the
ability of the accused to handle or tread upon red-hot irons. Abbot.
– Fire pan, a pan for holding or conveying fire, especially the
receptacle for the priming of a gun.
– Fire plug, a plug or hydrant for drawing water from the main
pipes in a street, building, etc., for extinguishing fires.
– Fire policy, the writing or instrument expressing the contract of
insurance against loss by fire.
– Fire pot. (a) (Mil.) A small earthen pot filled with
combustibles, formerly used as a missile in war. (b) The cast iron
vessel which holds the fuel or fire in a furnace. (c) A crucible. (d)
A solderer's furnace.
– Fire raft, a raft laden with combustibles, used for setting fire
to an enemy's ships.
– Fire roll, a peculiar beat of the drum to summon men to their
quarters in case of fire.
– Fire setting (Mining), the process of softening or cracking the
working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation, by exposing it to
the action of fire; -- now generally superseded by the use of
explosives. Raymond.
– Fire ship, a vessel filled with combustibles, for setting fire to
an enemy's ships.
– Fire shovel, a shovel for taking up coals of fire.
– Fire stink, the stench from decomposing iron pyrites, caused by
the formation of sulphureted hydrogen. Raymond.
– Fire surface, the surfaces of a steam boiler which are exposed to
the direct heat of the fuel and the products of combustion; heating
surface.
– Fire swab, a swab saturated with water, for cooling a gun in
action and clearing away particles of powder, etc. Farrow.
– Fire teaser, in England, the fireman of a steam emgine.
– Fire water, ardent spirits; -- so called by the American Indians.
– Fire worship, the worship of fire, which prevails chiefly in
Persia, among the followers of Zoroaster, called Chebers, or Guebers,
and among the Parsees of India.
– Greek fire. See under Greek.
– On fire, burning; hence, ardent; passionate; eager; zealous.
– Running fire, the rapid discharge of firearms in succession by a
line of troops.
– St. Anthony's fire, erysipelas; -- an eruptive fever which St.
Anthony was supposed to cure miraculously. Hoblyn.
– St. Elmo's fire. See under Saint Elmo.
– To set on fire, to inflame; to kindle.
– To take fire, to begin to burn; to fly into a passion.
Fire, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fired; p. pr. & vb. n. Fring.]
1. To set on fire; to kindle; as, to fire a house or chimney; to fire
a pile.
2. To subject to intense heat; to bake; to burn in a kiln; as, to
fire pottery.
3. To inflame; to irritate, as the passions; as, to fire the soul
with anger, pride, or revenge.
Love had fired my mind. Dryden.
4. To animate; to give life or spirit to; as, to fire the genius of a
young man.
5. To feed or serve the fire of; as, to fire a boiler.
6. To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.
[The sun] fires the proud tops of the eastern pines. Shak.
7. To cause to explode; as, to fire a torpedo; to disharge; as, to
fire a musket or cannon; to fire cannon balls, rockets, etc.
8. To drive by fire. [Obs.]
Till my bad angel fire my good one out. Shak.
9. (Far.)
Definition: To cauterize. To fire up, to light up the fires of, as of an
engine.
Fire, v. i.
1. To take fire; to be kindled; to kindle.
2. To be irritated or inflamed with passion.
3. To discharge artillery or firearms; as, they fired on the town. To
fire up, to grow irritated or angry. "He . . . fired up, and stood
vigorously on his defense." Macaulay.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition