fire
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfaɪ.ə/
ipa: [faɪ̯ə]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈfaːə]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈfaː]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈfɑə]
note: triphthong smoothing
ipa: [ˈfɑːə]
enpr: fīʹər
enpr: fīr
ipa: /ˈfaɪ.ɚ/
ipa: [ˈfaɪ̯ɚ]
ipa: /ˈfaɪɹ/
ipa: [ˈfäːɚ]
ipa: [fʌɪ̯ɚ]
ipa: /ˈfaɪ.ə/
ipa: [ˈfɑe̯ə]
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈfo̞ɪ.ɚ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈfəɪ.ɚ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈfo̞ɪ.ɐ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /ˈfəɪ.ɐ/
rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Forms: form: fires
form: firing
form: fired
form: fired
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: fire
form: fire
form: fired
form: fire
form: firest
form: fired
form: firedst
form: fires
form: fireth
form: fired
form: fire
form: fired
form: fire
form: fired
form: fire
form: -
form: firing
form: fired
Etymology: From Middle English firen, fyren, furen, from Old English fȳrian (“to make a fire”), from the noun (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian fioria (“to light a fire”), Saterland Frisian fjuurje (“to fire”), Middle Dutch vûren, vueren, vieren (“to set fire”), Dutch vuren (“to fire, shoot”), Old High German fiuren (“to ignite, set on fire”), German feuern (“to fire”).
Senses: examples: text: ["]Then I slipped up again with a box of matches, fired my heap of paper and rubbish, put the chairs and bedding thereby, led the gas to the affair, by means of an india-rubber tube, and waving a farewell to the room left it for the last time." / "You fired the house!" exclaimed Kemp. / "Fired the house. It was the only way to cover my trail – and no doubt it was insured.["]
ref: 1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “At the House in Great Portland Street”, in The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 186:
text: That lamp was the mummy of a woman tied to a stout stake let into the rock, and he had fired her hair.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: It was long a question of debate, whether the burning of the South Side ghetto was accidental, or whether it was done by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from their chiefs.
ref: 1908 February 19, Jack London, The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
synonyms: word: inflame
word: kindle
word: alight
word: conflagrate
word: fire
word: fire up
word: ignite
word: inflame
word: kindle
word: light
word: light up
word: set ablaze
word: set afire
word: set aflame
word: set alight
word: set fire
word: set on fire
word: torch
glosses: To set (something, often a building) on fire.
examples: text: If you fire the pottery at too high a temperature, it may crack.
text: They fire the wood to make it easier to put a point on the end.
text: So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
ref: 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To heat as with fire, but without setting on fire, as ceramic, metal objects, etc.
examples: text: Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 144”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
glosses: To drive away by setting a fire.
examples: text: The first, obvious choice was hysterical and fantastic Blanche – had there not been her timidity, her fear of being ‘fired’[…].
ref: 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 226:
synonyms: word: dehire
word: dismiss
word: give someone their cards
word: give the boot
word: give the elbow
word: give someone the heave-ho
word: let go
word: make redundant
word: sack
word: terminate
word: throw out
word: unhire
word: axe
word: can
word: decruit
word: dehire
word: discard
word: remove
word: discharge
word: dismiss
word: downsize
word: fire
word: give the axe
word: give someone the boot
word: give someone their cards
word: give the chop
word: give the elbow
word: give someone the heave-ho
word: give someone the old heave-ho
word: lay off
word: let go
word: let someone go
word: make redundant
word: pink slip
word: promote to customer
word: retrench
word: sack
word: serve notice
word: shit-can
word: term
word: terminate
word: throw out
word: unhire
antonyms: hire
qualifier: employment
glosses: To terminate the employment contract of (an employee), especially for cause (such as misconduct, incompetence, or poor performance).
examples: text: Don't be hesitant to fire a client - cull out the deadwood. If a client doesn't meet the above criteria, you are better off without him. You don't do your best work for a client you'd rather not have.
ref: 1979, Richard Collins Rea, Operating a Successful Accounting Practice: A Collection of Material from the Journal of Accountancy Practitioners Forum, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 288:
text: Maintaining a collegial attitude even when doing the more difficult business work, like firing a client, is another part. If you are struggling through the relationship, the client might be struggling as well, so firing them may be mutually beneficial, and you should try and do it on the best of terms.
ref: 2020, Rebecca Migdal, Museum Mercenary: A Handbook for Independent Museum Professionals, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 278:
glosses: To terminate a contract with a client; to drop a client.
examples: text: We will fire our guns at the enemy.
text: The jet fired a salvo of rockets at the truck convoy.
text: He fired his radar gun at passing cars.
synonyms: word: let off
word: loose
topics: archery
martial-arts
sports
military
war
government
politics
hobbies
lifestyle
word: shoot
glosses: To shoot (a gun, rocket/missile, or analogous device).
examples: text: Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.
text: I heard that both yesterday and today, when transports of the central government carrying our soldiers arrived at Hu-lu-tao, bandit troops on the shore fired at them.
ref: 1989, Dolores Zen, transl., Last Chance in Manchuria, Hoover Institution Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 93:
synonyms: open fire
shoot
glosses: To shoot a gun, cannon, or similar weapon.
examples: text: The RCS thrusters fired several times to stabilize the tumbling spacecraft.
topics: aerospace
astronautics
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To operate a rocket engine to produce thrust.
examples: text: `Now are you both ready?' I said, as people do when they are going to fire a mine.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
topics: business
mining
glosses: To set off an explosive in a mine.
examples: text: Andrey Arshavin equalised with a superb volley into the corner before Nicklas Bendtner coolly fired Arsenal in front.
ref: 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To shoot; to attempt to score a goal.
examples: text: When a neuron fires, it transmits information.
topics: medicine
physiology
sciences
glosses: To cause an action potential in a cell.
examples: text: He answered the questions the reporters fired at him.
synonyms: propel
shoot
throw
glosses: To forcibly direct (something).
examples: text: The event handler should only fire after all web page content has finished loading.
text: The queue fires a job whenever the thread pool is ready to handle it.
topics: computer-sciences
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
glosses: To initiate an event (by means of an event handler).
examples: text: to fire the soul with anger, pride, or revenge
synonyms: word: arouse
word: excite
word: animate
word: awaken
word: electrify
word: enflame
word: enkindle
word: enthrill
word: exagitate
word: excite
word: exhilarate
word: exsuscitate
word: fillip
word: fire
word: fire the blood
word: galvanize
word: gin up
word: ignite
word: inflame
word: intoxicate
word: kindle
word: quicken
word: rouse
word: send
word: set fire to
word: set on fire
word: sharpen
word: stir the blood
word: suscitate
word: thrill
word: vitalise
word: wake
word: warm the blood
word: whet
word: wind up
word: work up
word: yerk
word: abet
word: actuate
word: goose
word: send
word: sting
word: bring about
word: cheer
word: drive
word: encourage
word: egg on
word: engender
word: evoke
word: excite
word: foment
word: goad
word: grill
word: ignite
word: impel
word: incite
word: induce
word: inflame
word: instigate
word: invoke
word: lash
word: motive
word: motivate
word: move
word: obligate
word: oblige
word: push
word: promote
word: prompt
word: provoke
word: rouse
word: set off
word: spark off
word: spur
word: spur on
word: stimulate
word: stir
word: stir up
word: stoke
word: tempt
word: urge
word: whet
word: whip up
glosses: To inflame; to irritate, as the passions.
examples: text: Inexperienced girl as I was, I fired at the idea of becoming his dupe, and fancying, perhaps, that there was more in merely answering his note than it would have amounted to, I said — "That kind of thing may answer very well with button-makers, but ladies don't like it. […]
ref: 1864, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas:
text: Love had fired my mind.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To be irritated or inflamed with passion.
examples: text: to fire the genius of a young man
synonyms: word: energize
word: inspirit
word: animate
word: arouse
word: awaken
word: beghast
word: leaven
word: bright
word: brighten
word: cheer
word: energize
word: enliven
word: enthuse
word: exalt
word: excite
word: fire up
word: ginger
word: ginger up
word: inflame
word: invigorate
word: inspire
word: inspirit
word: jazz
word: kindle
word: liven
word: liven up
word: perk up
word: quicken
word: spice
word: spice up
word: stimulate
word: vitalise
glosses: To animate; to give life or spirit to.
examples: text: to fire a boiler
text: We left with the "Blue Train", dead on time. This time I fired all the way. […] The next day took me home again on No. E.16 with Henri Dutertre. I fired from Paris to Calais.
ref: 1961 March, ""Balmore"", “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 150, 151:
glosses: To feed or serve the fire of.
examples: text: [The sun] fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
synonyms: word: belight
word: alight
word: belight
word: beshine
word: bright
word: enlighten
word: fire
word: illume
word: illuminate
word: illumine
word: illustrate
word: irradiate
word: light
word: lighten
word: light up
word: luster
word: lustrate
word: shed light on
glosses: To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.
topics: farriery
hobbies
horses
lifestyle
pets
sports
glosses: To cauterize (a horse, or a part of its body).
synonyms: word: go up in flames
word: catch on fire
word: catch fire
word: combust
word: conflagrate
word: fire
word: go up in flames
word: go up in smoke
word: ignite
word: light
word: spunk
word: take fire
glosses: To catch fire; to be kindled.
examples: text: I fired on that train until August.
glosses: To work as a fireman, one who keeps the fire under a steam boiler on a steam-powered ship or train.
glosses: To start (an engine).
raw_tags: with "up"
examples: text: I'd say he struggled to get around the course. He never fired. In other years, when Buzzy Hannum rode him, he ran well enough to win, but not this time.
ref: 1988, Chronicle of the Horse, volume 51, numbers 1-13, page 18:
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: Of a horse: to race ahead with a burst of energy.
Derived terms: word: coal-fired
word: coalfired
word: fire at will
word: fire away
word: fire in anger
word: fire off
word: fire the starting gun
word: fire up
word: firing
word: gas-firing
word: get someone's neurons firing
word: hang fire
word: oil-fired
word: overfired
word: overfire
word: over-fire
word: ready, aim, fire
word: ready, fire, aim
word: ripple-fire
word: slamfire
word: stoker-fired
word: underfire
word: underfired
word: unfirable
word: you're fired