a. and sb. [a. Fr. combustible, f. late L. combūstibil-is, f. combūst-, ppl. stem of combūrĕre; see COMBURE.] A. adj.
1. Capable of being burnt or consumed by fire, fit for burning, burnable.
1529. More, Heresyes, IV. Wks. 264/1. The fire can … burne al combustible thinges that it may towch.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 19. 26. Multitudes of faggots, or other combustible fuell.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 2 Sept. Everything, after so long a drought, proving combustible.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 345. Stubble, and such like combustible matter.
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 255. Orgonez … set fire to the combustible roof of the building.
2. fig. Easily kindled to violence or passion; excitable; inflammable.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), 17/1. This distemper was so universal, the least spark still meeting with combustible matter enough to make a flame.
1698. W. Chilcot, Evil Thoughts, iv. (1851), 37. The mind of man is combustible; the thoughts of his heart are mere tinder to the sparks of a lewd fancy.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), IV. lix. 416. The commons, aware of what combustible materials the army was composed.
1867. Parkman, Jesuits N. Amer., xiii. (1875), 153. It was to the combustible hearts of female recluses that the torch was most busily applied.
† 3. Burning, fiery. Obs.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 391. This last and least fire [of Etna], runne downe in a combustible flood.
B. sb. A combustible substance or matter.
1688. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 344, IV. 113. Eight or nine barrels of combustibles.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. vi. 198. Pitch, tar, and other combustibles.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 80. All our ordinary combustibles—such as coal, wood, oil, etc.
b. fig.
1813. Sir R. Wilson, in Life, II. 475. Metternich works up the combustibles in Switzerland for a spring explosion.
