bonfire
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: ceramics
chemistry
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
Etymology: PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
 From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).
Inflected forms:
form: bonfires
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: burnfire
pos: noun
tags: alternative
nonstandard
form: bonefire
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: boanefier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonefier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: beane fyre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bon-fier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonfier
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonfyer
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bone fyre
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bon-fire
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonfires
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bonfiring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bonfired
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bonfired
pos: verb
tags: past
form: burnfire
pos: verb
tags: alternative
nonstandard
form: bonefire
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: boanefier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonefier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: beane fyre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bon-fier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonfier
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bonfyer
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bone fyre
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bon-fire
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
pos: noun
examples: O thou art a perpetuall triumph, an euerlaſting bonefire light, […]
Theſe vvith the like diſtaſtures, diuulged among the rude multitude, it vvas a vvorld to ſee the face of this nevv VVorld, for in euery ſtreete Bonfires vvere made, in euery Church bels rung, Ditties vvere ſung at euery meeting, and euery man cryed K. Henry, King Henry, […]
And vve particularly remember, that, being at ſome diſtance from London one Night, that the People, upon a very vvell-come Occaſion, teſtified their Joy by numerous Bon-fires; though, by reaſon of the Interpoſition of the Houſes, vve could not ſee the Fires themſelves, yet vve could plainly ſee the Air all enlighten'd over and near the City; vvhich argu'd, that the lucid Beams ſhot upvvards from the Fires, met in the Air with the Corpuſcles opacous enough to reflect them to our Eyes.
Towns have been taken, and battles have been won; the mob has huzza'd round bonefires, the Stentor of the chappel has ſtrained his throat in the gallery, and the Stentor of S——m has deafned his audience from the pulpit.
The bells of all England rang joyously: the gutters ran with ale; and, night after night, the sky five miles round London was reddened by innumerable bonfires.
A number of towns in East Sussex, and on the borders of Kent and Surrey, make a special feature of huge bonfires and torchlight processions with fireworks on Guy Fawkes day or an early November Saturday.
gloss: A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.
pos: noun
examples: [A]ll the inhabitauntes confortynge and exhortynge eche other to die, rather than to violate the leage and amitie that they of longe tyme had contynued with the Romaynes, by one hole assent, after that they hadde made sondry great pyles of wode and of other mater to brenne, they layde in it all their goodes and substaunce, and laste of all, conuayenge them selfes in to the saide pyles or bonefires with their wyfes and children, sette all on fire, and there were brenned or Annyballe coulde entree the citie.
I had thought to haue let in ſome of all Profeſſions, that goe the Primroſe way to th'euerlasting Bonfire.
He's mounted on a Hazel Bavin, / A Cropt malignant Baker gave 'em. / And to the largeſt Bonefire, riding / Th' have Roaſted Cook already, and Pride-m.
[M]any of the women threw down their head-dresses in the middle of his [Thomas Conecte's] sermon, and made a bonfire of them within sight of the pulpit.
gloss: Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: And one thing I like in you, novv that you ſee / The bonefire of your Ladies ſtate burnt out, / You give it over, doe you not?
gloss: A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: The bodies which the plague had ſlaine were (O moſt wretched caſe) / Not caried forth to buriall now. For why ſuch ſtore there was / That ſcarce the gates were wyde inough for Coffins forth to paſſe. / So eyther lothly on the ground vnburied did they lie, / Or elſe without ſolemnitie were burnt in bonfires hie / No reuerence nor regard was had.
Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad, / Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles: / And making bonfires for my ouerthrow. / But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters / Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]
For after Tertullian, in the dayes of Minucius it was obviouſly objected upon Chriſtians, that they condemned the practiſe of burning. […] And perhaps not fully diſuſed till Chriſtianity fully eſtabliſhed, vvhich gave the finall extinction to theſe ſepulchrall Bonefires.
gloss: To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: [L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning.
Sir, there are as many public documents as you could put in this room that must be taken out and bonfired, that have cost millions, that must be burned up, unless this provision of the honorable Senator from Illinois is carried.
And as for ancient history, I think a good share of that could be bonfired. Kings, Emperors, Popes, Doges, Consuls, Priests, Shahs, Pharoahs, and all their quarrels and squabblings, with the times and seasons of the same—what a fine blaze they would make, and it is the only fine thing they could make, as I count it.
From one house they went to another, from that to another, until not one of the Christian[s]' houses was left standing. Everything was deliberately taken outside and bonfired; where the house adjoined others it was destroyed, where it stood alone it was given over to the devouring element.
[L]ibraries to be bonfired on the ground that the care of books competed with the care of babies, […]
So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous / But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery / And 'tis short till sheriff Clancy'll be winding up his unlimited company
In any case, he made a point of bonfiring most of Lane's ideas, especially the liberal ones.
'Thank you, Bruce sweetie,' Victoria said, serenely, the operating light directly behind her bonfiring her hair.
We fell, fell, fell all of us, Icaruses, bits of papery ash falling through dusk after the German Reich had been bonfired out of existence by French and Bolshevist guile.
Skinny militia fighters with canisters on their backs had circled the compound. Burning gasoline-covered tents and corpses, bonfiring the thorn tree barrier, creating heat so profound it convoluted the air and made our plane bounce.
gloss: To fire (pottery) using a bonfire.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.
In China, where huge figures have been excavated in recent years at Xian, archaeologists surmise that they were probably bonfired lying horizontally in a pit, or possibly handmade bricks were piled over the sculptures to retain heat; the bricks would have been removed from round the figure when the firing was over.
Fabricated in the coil and pinch manner of old societies, the work was bonfired—but then a unique treatment was used. Before the pot had cooled, hot melted pitch from piñon trees was poured or rubbed in a thin coating over the vessel, inside and out. This unusual technique distinguished the look and aroma of Navajo pottery.
gloss: To start a bonfire in (a place); to light up (a place) with a bonfire.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: They almost carried him [the king] into the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired.
gloss: To make, or celebrate around, a bonfire.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
rare
examples: [W]hen the news of the battle of Lissa came even to our remote quarter of Ireland, we considered it as a triumph for the cause of Protestantism, and illuminated, and bonfired, and had a sermon at church, and kept the Prussian king's birthday, on which my uncle would get drunk, as indeed on any other occasion.
Seems as if one day we are all bar-b-quing, swimming, jetskiing, bonfiring, and the next thing you know everyone is gone, leaving the house empty (except for the sad pile of damp towels and a refrigerator full of sloppy Jo's).
Before I got out of Josh's car as he dropped me off after Marmalade's that first night, he said they were bonfiring at Shell Shores the next afternoon. He didn't even ask if I wanted to meet them, just assumed I'd be there.
Related words: balefire
Derived words: bonfire boy
Bonfire Island
bonfirelike
Bonfire Night
bonfire of the vanities
bonfire society
bonfire toffee
bonfire tree
bonnie
piss on someone's bonfire
bonfiring
Translations: