DictionaryAI

fire

FY-ur/ˈfaɪ.ɚ/UKFY-uh/ˈfaɪ.ə/

Pluralfires

Verbfires, firing, fired

37 meanings of fire

Practice

  1. 1
    destructive burningnouncountable
    An outbreak of burning in a particular place, often accidental, that causes damage and danger.

    The fire spread quickly through the old wooden building before help arrived.

    Investigators believe a faulty wire started the fire in the basement.

    UsageCommon verbs: start, put out and fight a fire. Something burning is on fire; it catches fire when it starts to burn.

    Similarblaze, inferno, conflagration

  2. 2
    noununcountable
    A usually self-sustaining chemical reaction in which oxygen bonds with carbon or another fuel, producing heat along with flame or smoldering.

    Fire requires fuel, oxygen, and enough heat to begin and sustain itself.

    The chemistry of fire explains why a wet blanket can smother flames.

    UsageNo a for burning in general: fire needs oxygen. A blaze in one place is a fire.

    Similarcombustion, burning, flame

  3. 3
    sackverbtransitive
    To dismiss someone from a job; by extension, to end a working relationship with someone, such as a client.

    The board voted to fire the chief executive after the scandal broke.

    His boss fired him on the spot for lying to a client.

    Similardismiss, sack, discharge

    Oppositehire, employ, appoint

  4. 4
    shoot (weapon)verbintransitive
    To shoot a gun, cannon or other weapon, or to send a bullet, shell or missile from one.

    The cannons fired at dawn, shaking the whole valley.

    Order the troops to hold steady and not fire until commanded.

    UsageUse fire at or fire on a target. To start shooting, the set phrase is open fire.

    Similarshoot

    Note

    "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" uses the verb with no object, as a plain command.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The quoted wording is attested as a command; no speaker is attributed in the item. nps.gov
  5. 5
    lit for warmthnouncountable
    A fire that someone builds and keeps burning in one place for warmth, cooking or light, such as a campfire or a fire in a hearth; also the fuel laid ready for one.

    Each evening the family built a fire and gathered around it.

    A small fire crackled in the stone hearth all night.

    UsageCommon verbs: light, build or make a fire, get the fire going, sit around the fire.

    Similarblaze

    Note

    A fire you build and tend, rather than fire in general. In Joseph C. Lincoln's Mr. Pratt's Patients (1913), the men tote in the wood and get the fire going "nice and comfortable," the homely register this sense usually keeps.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Joseph C. Lincoln wrote Mr. Pratt's Patients, first published in 1913. archive.org
    • The novel describes the men bringing in wood and starting the fire, using the exact words 'nice and comfortable.' archive.org
  6. 6
    noununcountable
    The shooting of guns or other weapons, or the bullets and shells they discharge.

    The patrol advanced slowly under constant fire from the ridge.

    Return fire forced the attackers to fall back behind the wall.

    UsageSet phrases: under fire, come under fire, open fire, return fire, enemy fire.

    Similargunfire, shooting

  7. 7
    set ablazeverbtransitive
    To set something ablaze, especially a building or similar structure.

    The retreating army fired the village before withdrawing.

    During the feud, someone crept out one night to fire the neighbors' haystacks.

    UsageMostly in stories and history. Everyday English says set fire to a building or set it on fire.

    Similarignite, light, kindle, torch, inflame

    Oppositeextinguish, douse

    Note

    This literal sense is the language of arson in fiction. H. G. Wells, Rider Haggard and Jack London all use it, London in the passive: the ghetto "was fired by the Mercenaries."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • H. G. Wells uses the verb to mean setting something ablaze. gutenberg.org
    • Rider Haggard uses the verb to mean setting something ablaze. gutenberg.org
    • Jack London uses the passive wording “was fired by the Mercenaries” about the ghetto in The Iron Heel. upload.wikimedia.org
  8. 8
    verbtransitive
    To send or direct something rapidly and forcefully toward a target or person, such as a ball at goal or a string of questions.

    The interviewer fired a series of pointed questions at the candidate.

    Strikers are taught to fire the ball low and hard at the far post.

    Usagefire something at someone: fire questions at a politician. Also fire off a quick text or email.

    Similarshoot, hurl, launch, drive

  9. 9
    passionnouncountable or uncountable
    Strong feeling or spirit, such as love, anger, or eager energy and enthusiasm.

    There was such fire in his voice that the room fell silent.

    The rivalry between them burned with a fire neither would admit.

    Similarpassion, fervor, ardor, intensity, heat

    Oppositeapathy, indifference, coldness

    Note

    Passion pictured as heat, and the figure cuts both ways: love burns, and so does anger. Francis Atterbury could write in 1687 that a man "had fire in his temper," and Poe's "Tamerlane", in its 1829 revision, calls hope "that fire of fire." The verb that kindles this heat is to inflame the passions.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Francis Atterbury wrote “had fire in his temper.” en.wiktionary.org
    • The Atterbury work containing the quotation was published in 1687. searcharchives.bl.uk
    • Poe’s 1829 revision of “Tamerlane” calls hope “that fire of fire.” eapoe.org
    • The collection containing that revision bears the publication year 1829. eapoe.org
  10. 10
    inspireverbtransitive
    To fill someone with strong feeling, such as enthusiasm, passion or anger; to stir or inspire.

    The orator's words fired the crowd into a frenzy.

    Nothing could fire his ambition quite like a rival's success.

    UsageOften fire someone with a feeling, or fire up a team or crowd.

    Similarinspire, stir, excite, rouse, arouse

    Oppositedampen, discourage

    Note

    The causative partner of fire as passion: to fire someone is to kindle that heat in them.

  11. 11
    fuel (furnace)verbtransitive or intransitive
    To feed or tend the fire of something such as a boiler, furnace, or steam engine.

    Two stokers took turns to fire the ship's boilers through the night.

    He fired for the railroad for ten years before he was promoted to engineer.

    Similarstoke, feed

    Note

    Steam-age work: to fire a boiler is to keep shoveling fuel into it so the steam stays up. Locomotive crews often use it without an object, as when an engineman recalls firing all the way from Paris to Calais. The worker who does it is a fireman, in the stoker sense.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Steam boiler firing involves supplying fuel to maintain the fire and generate steam. en.wikipedia.org
    • A first-person account describes firing a locomotive from Paris to Calais. en.wiktionary.org
  12. 12
    bake (pottery)verbtransitive
    To harden something such as ceramic or metal by heating it strongly, without making it burn.

    The studio fires its pottery at over a thousand degrees.

    Artisans fire the tiles twice to set the glaze.

    Similarbake

    Note

    The potter's sense, where heat hardens or changes a thing without burning it. Clay is fired, and so is wood hardened to take a sharp point. A fired-in design is fixed into the surface by heat, like the scenes the narrator of W. B. M. Ferguson's Zollenstein (1908) recalls on Heidelberg steins.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

  13. 13
    nounUSuncountableus
    The fire department, as the public service that puts out fires and answers related emergencies, often named alongside the police.

    Police, fire, and EMS were on the scene within minutes of the explosion.

    The city council voted to raise salaries for police and fire next year.

    UsagePaired with no article: police and fire, fire and EMS. In full, the fire department.

  14. 14
    classical elementnoununcountable
    The chemical reaction of burning, regarded as one of the classical elements or as one of the basic elements of alchemy.

    Greek philosophers counted fire among the elements from which all matter was thought to be made.

    The alchemist's diagram set fire opposite water, and air opposite earth.

    Note

    A principle rather than a blaze: one of the elements, with earth, air and water, that ancient philosophy and later alchemy believed every substance contained. It takes no article, as in the element of fire. Modern chemistry treats burning as a reaction, so the sense now lives in history, philosophy and symbolism.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of fire apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–2, 5–6, 9, 13–16, 19–21

The word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ by way of Proto-Germanic and Proto-West Germanic forms, reaching Old English as fȳr ("fire") and Middle English as fyr. Relatives include Dutch vuur, German Feuer, Ancient Greek pûr, and English pyre.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

Meanings 3–4, 7–8, 10–12, 17–18, 22–25

From Middle English "firen," from Old English "fȳrian" (to make a fire), formed from the noun. It is related to Dutch "vuren" (to fire, shoot) and German "feuern" (to fire).

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts