Fire sb.

Forms: 1 fýr, 2–4 fur(e, 3–5 fuyr(e, 4 fuir(e, 5 feure, 2–5 fer(e, 3 south. ver(e, (5 feer), 2–7 fier(e, (3 feir), 4–6 fyr(e, (5 fyyr, 5–7 fyer(e, (5 feyer, 6 fyar, fieare), 2–5 fir, 3– fire. [Com. WGer.: OE. fýr str. neut. = OFris. fiur, fior, OS. fiur (Du. vuur, Flem. vier), OHG. fiur, fûir (MHG. viur, fiwer, Ger. feuer); the Icel. fúr-r str. masc., fýre str. neut., fire, and Sw., Da. fyr, lighthouse, beacon, may be of German or Eng. origin. The OTeut. *fûir- (cons. stem) corresponds to Gr. πύ-ιρ, πῦρ, Umbrian pir, Arm. hūr, of same meaning; cf. Skr. pū, pāvaka fire.]

  In poetry sometimes as two syllables.

  A.  As simple sb.

  1.  The natural agency or active principle operative in combustion; popularly conceived as a substance visible in the form of flame or of ruddy glow or incandescence.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xvii. 9 [xviii. 8]. Astaȝ rec in eorre his & fyr from onsiene his born.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Exod., 93 (Gr.). Him beforan foran fyr and wolcen.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 89. On þisse deie com þe halie gast on fures heowe to godes hirede.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 17414. He swallt þurrh firess wunde.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1139.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 151. Y formed as a dragon, as red as þe fuyr.

1340.  Ayenb., 265. Þer me geþ uram chele in to greate hete of uere.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 102. Þanne maist þou wiþ tendre gete fuyre of þat stone.

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 21.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 3. Whiche from y^e gyrdell downwarde was all lyke fyre.

1607.  Hieron, Wks., I. 364. Fier is known to be fier by the heat, though for the time it haue no flame.

1622.  Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 49. These words he uttered with much passion; with a face as red as fire that the bloud seemed to trickle downe his cheekes, and sparkles to flash for very anger forth his eyes.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. lxxi. 802. Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death; the rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry and negligence of mankind; and every period of the Roman annals is marked by the repetition of similar calamities.

1837.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1839), I. i. 9. Fire does not inflame iron, but it inflames straw.

  b.  as one of the four ‘elements.’

a. 1300.  Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 121. Next the mone the fur is hext.

1576.  Baker, Jewell of Health, 170 a. Mans blood … out of which draw, according to Art, the fowre Elements…. The water of it auayleth in all sicknesses…. The Ayre also distylled of it, much auayleth vnto [etc.]…. But the fyre purchased of it, is more precious and marueylousser…. Thys fyre, is named the Elixir vitæ.

1700.  Dryden, Fables, Pythag. Philos., 517.

  c.  with reference to hell or purgatory; sometimes in pl. Also in Alchemy, † Fire of Hell = ALKAHEST.

c. 975.  Rushw. Gosp., Mark ix. 44. Ðer … ꝥ fyr ne biॠ ȝidrysnad.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. v. 22. Se ðe seȝð, þu stunta, se byð scyldiȝ helle fyres.

c. 1175.  Cott. Hom., 221. Þat ece fer.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29165 (Cott.).

1577.  Fulke, Confut. Purg., 102. But what doctrine is tryed to be true or false, substantiall or superficiall by the fire of purgatory?

1657.  G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., 241. The sweet oyl … by cohobation with the fire of Hell (that is, the Alchahest) becomes volatile, and sweet like hony.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 44.

1830.  A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837), I. 273. [A child-witness] ‘knows that people who swear falsely in a Court of Justice go to brimstone and fire.’

  fig.  1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, V. 444.

  d.  Volcanic heat, flame, or glowing lava; † a volcanic eruption.

c. 1582.  Edmund Skory in Nature, XXVII. 316/1. On the sommer time the fyers doe ofte breake forth from out the hole in the topp of this hill; into which, if you throw a great stone, it soundeth as if a great weight had fallen upon infinite store of hollow Brasse.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., IX. 391. This last and least fire [of Etna], runne downe in a combustible flood, from the middle above, Anno 1614. June 25.

1734.  Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 124.

1811.  W. J. Hooker, Iceland (1813), II. 106. Hecla, from the frequency of its fires, from its vicinity to the most populous part of the island, and from its situation that renders it visible to ships sailing to Greenland and North America, has been by far the most celebrated among foreign countries.

1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., i. 1. The volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for vegetation.

  † e.  Farriery. = Cautery. Cf. to give the fire in 1 f. Obs.

1635.  Markham, Faithfull Farrier (1638), 103. The Actuall fire stoppeth corruption of members, and stancheth blood, provided the Sinews, Cords, and Ligaments be not toucht. Ibid., 103–4. The Potentiall fires are Medecines Corosive, Putrefactive, or Caustick.

1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1740), II. 199. As Horses must submit to Fire. Ibid., 218. Is not this Oil, in a great measure, what we call potential Fire?

  f.  Phrases. † To give fire (to): (a) to apply a match to, set light to; to kindle, lit. and fig.; also absol.; (b) in Farriery (also, to give the fire), to cauterize; in quots. absol. To set († a) fire to († of, † in, † on, † upon): to apply fire to, kindle, ignite. To strike (or † smite) fire: see the verbs.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Miner P., Agst. Idlen., xx.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 107 b. Thei set fire in their lodgynges, and departed in good ordre of battail.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 450. To strike fire with a flint, excutere silicis scintillam.

1580.  Blundevil, Horsemanship, IV. clxxxv. (heading). Of Cauterization, or giuing the fire.

1590.  Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 21. The Harquebusiers giving fire with their matches in their serpentines to the touchpowder, oftentimes their pieces do not discharge.

1604.  E. Grimstone, Hist. Siege Ostend, 45. A firie Bullet faling behinde a Burgesses house, set fire of a barrell of Poulder, the which burnt all the house.

1607.  A. Brewer, Lingua, IV. I. Men. When hee had hangd this Adamant in a corde, he comes back, and giues fire to the tutch-hole, now the powder consumed to a voide vacuvm.

1623.  Bingham, Xenophon, 50. All arose and departing, set fire on the Carts, and Tents, and on the things, that might wel be spared.

1633.  Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, 549. But I will bring upon them Nebuchadnezzar, who shall invade their countrey, and set a fire on their chiefe city Rabbah; and shall come upon them with great fiercenesse and fury, like a tempestuous whirle-winde, and shall vtterly destroy all before him.

1635.  Markham, Faithfull Farrier (1638), 103. There are two waies to give fire, the one Actuall, and the other Potentiall.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. 85. These Fuses are very certain to give Fire, but Match doth ofttimes fail.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XIII. (1704), III. 354. The Lady … having given fire her self to the Cannon in the Bastile.

1700.  Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 786. They set Fire on the Suburbs.

1725.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6447/4. One of the said Persons did strike Fire.

1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 217. The Absurdity of giving the Fire for the Cure of Bog-spavins.

1761.  Gray, Lett. to Brown, 24 Sept. The instant the queen’s canopy entered, fire was given to all the lustres at once by trains of prepared flax.

  g.  In exclamatory phrases (cf. 1 c).

[1601, 1604: see BRIMSTONE 1 b.]

1825.  J. Neal, Brother Jonathan, II. 91–2. Fire an’ brimstone! lay hold o’ the trumpet, I say—lay hold o’ the trumpet, our Tib; and blow away like nineteen devils—or you may get a licken’, my lad.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, l. ‘Fire and fury, master!’ cried Hugh, starting up. ‘What have we done, that you should talk to us like this!’

  h.  Proverbs. † Do not put fire to flax or tow. † There is no fire without smoke: i.e., everything has some disadvantages. There is no smoke without fire (see quot. 1670)

a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 25. It wille make her do and thenke the worse, as it were to putte fere in flexe.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 57. Put not fyer to fyer…. This prouerbe is touched in Englyshe where it is sayde, that we ought not to put fyre to towe.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1562), Hj. There is no fyre without some smoke.

1670.  Ray, Prov., 143. No smoke without some fire, i. e. There is no strong rumour without some ground for it.

1888.  F. Hume, Madame Midas, II. xii. ‘There is no smoke without fire,’ replied Rolleston, eagerly.

  2.  State of ignition or combustion. In phrases: On fire (also † of a fire, † in (a) fire): ignited, burning; fig. inflamed with passion, anger, zeal, etc. To set (or † put) on fire (also † in (a) fire, † on a fire): to ignite, set burning; also fig. to inflame, excite intensely. To set the Thames on fire: to make a brilliant reputation. See also AFIRE.

  Not found in OE., nor is there anything analogous in German; F. has en feu. The phrases in lit. sense chiefly refer to destructive burning: cf. 5.

c. 1400.  An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 3. For þoo þre chimneis ich low or þe fendis blowing is sett in fire.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 2470. For fest I alle on [v.r. in] a fire þe foly is ȝoure awen.

c. 1485.  Digby Myst. (1882), III. 742.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 17. I shall sett all his londes in fyre.

c. 1500.  Melusine, 228. He was wood angry & sorowful, & sware his goddes that he shuld putte al on fyre.

1548.  Hall, Chron., 107 b. The fortresse … thei toke and set it on fire.

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 136. No mans nature is so apt, straight to be heated, except the Oratour himselfe, be on fire, and bring his heate with him.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., Jack Cade, xvii. 6.

1641.  Shute, Sarah & Hagar (1649), 148. Certainly, if Gods mercy be in a fire, our thankfulness must not be in a frost.

a. 1680.  Charnock, Wks. (1864), I. 195. We have a natural antipathy against a divine rule, and therefore when it is clapped close to our consciences, there is a snuffing at it, high reasonings against it, corruption breaks out more strongly: as water poured on lime sets it on fire by an antiperistasis.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. xv. 414. It thundered and lightned prodigiously, and the Sea seemed all of a Fire about us: for every Sea that broke sparkled like Lightning.

1724.  De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 142. They were all on fire to fall on; and I am persuaded had they been led immediately into a battle begun to their hands, they would have laid about them like furies, for there is nothing like victory to flush a young soldier.

1818.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, VI. iv.

1857.  Trollope, Three Clerks, vii. When Sir Gregory Hardlines declared that Mr. Fidus Neverbend would never set the Thames on fire, he meant to express his opinion that that gentleman was a fool.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xvii. 80. Enough was carried beyond the sea to set on fire the minds of all those among William’s countrymen who had tarried by their own hearths while the land which sent forth such goodly stores was in winning.

  b.  To catch, take fire, († set on fire): to become ignited (see CATCH v. 44, TAKE v.). Also (colloq. or vulgar), to catch on fire.

1644.  Digby, Two Treatises, I. xvii. 147. The Indian canes (which from thence are called firecanes) being rubbed with some other sticke of the same nature; if they be first very dry, will of themselues sett on fire.

1886.  Conway, Living or Dead, x. Now, don’t catch on fire like that, Philip.

  3.  Fuel in a state of combustion; a mass of burning material, e.g., on a hearth or altar, in a burning furnace, etc. † To keep one’s fire: to stay at home. Coals of fire: see COAL 1 b.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 322 (Gr.). Laȝon þa oðre fynd on þam fyre.

c. 1205.  Lay., 1196. He halde þa milc in þat fur.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 12/373.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 907.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 42. Do hem on a potte ouer þe fyre.

c. 1460.  Play Sacram., 682.

c. 1500.  Melusiue, xxxvi. 264. To long he had kept his fyre.

1533.  Gau, Richt Vay (1883), 31. As the gold is prouine in the fyr.

c. 1558[?].  Cavendish, Wolsey (1825), l. 204. Go down again, and make a great fire in your lodge, against I come to dry them.

1634.  Prynne, Documents agst. Prynne (Camden), 24. He condempnes the booke to the fyer, and the author and publisher, with my Lord Cottington.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, II. 397.

1717.  Berkeley, Tour in Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 564. After several hours of windy rainy cold weather; forced to have a fire.

1735.  Pope, Donne Sat., II. 111.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, ii. A good fire, with the assistance of a blazing lamp, spread light and cheerfulness through the apartment.

1854.  H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., v. (1857), 95. The second apartment, reckoning upwards, which was of considerable size, formed the sitting-room of the family, and had, in the old Highland style, its fire full in the middle of the floor, without back or sides; so that, like a bonfire kindled in the open air, all the inmates could sit around it in a wide circle.

  b.  transf. and fig.; also in phr. near the fire.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 408. The other Princes & states, especially suche as are nere the fire.

1596.  Harington, Metam. Ajax (1814), 115–6. You may make a great fire of your gains, and be never the warmer; and may throw all mine into A JAX, and be never the poorer.

1611.  Bible, James iii. 6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquitie: so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.

1633.  P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., V. iii.

1639.  Laud, in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1721), III. II. 899. Let him make a happy use of coming so near the Fire, and yet escape.

1665.  Hooke, Microgr., 210. Admire the excellent contrivance of Nature, in placing in Animals such a fire, as is continually nourished and supply’d by the materials convey’d into the stomach, and fomented by the bellows of the lungs.

1709.  Pope, Ess. Crit., 195.

  † c.  Fire of joy: a bonfire; = FEU DE JOIE 1.

a. 1674.  Clarendon, Relig. & Policy (1711), I. vi. 314. Preparations being made, according to custom, by the magistrates for making fires of joy, and other triumphant solemnities.

  d.  The same serving as a beacon. [Cf. Da. fyr lighthouse.]

1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4893/3. The Fire [in a lighthouse] will be lighted … from the First Day of September.

  e.  Proverbs. A burnt child dreads the fire: see BURNT 3 b. † A soft fire makes sweet malt: said as a recommendation of gentleness or deliberation. The fat is in the fire: see FAT sb.² 3 c.

a. 1300[?].  Salomon & Sat. (1848), 276. Brend child fur dredeþ, quoþ Hendyng.

1340.  Ayenb., 116. Þe ybernde uer dret.

c. 1530.  R. Hilles, Common-pl. Bk. (1858), 140. A softe ffyre makyth swete malte.

1550.  Coverdale, Spir. Perle, xiii. (1588), 141. A Burnt hande dreadeth the fire.

1663.  Butler, Hud., I. iii. 1251.

  † f.  transf. in enumerations: A household. Obs.

1630.  R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 214. Parishes; in some of which, a thousand people, or (as they terme it) a thousand housholders or fires doe inhabit.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xviii. 63–4. Because it was a Town of fifteen hundred fires, as we guessed, the next morning by break of day we set sail without any great notice taken of us.

  † 4.  a. The means of lighting a fire or setting something alight; a live coal. b. Firing, fuel.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 3162 (Gött.).

1540.  Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 6. With quarelles gunpouder, fyre, and touche.

1611.  Bible, Gen. xxii. 7. Behold the fire and wood: but where is the lambe for a burnt offring?

  b.  1547.  Nottingham Rec., IV. 91. In exspenses for fyar and candelle, bred and alle iiijs. jd.

1635.  W. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 96. Here is a mighty want of fire in these moors; neither coal, nor wood, nor turf; only the cutt and flea top-turves with linge upon them.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 274. Little extra expence attended the fixing at the rock, except a little more Lead, and a little more Fire.

  5.  Destructive burning, esp. of any large extent or mass of combustible material, e.g., a building, forest, etc.; a conflagration. Also in phr. fire and sword, († iron and fire); also attrib. At fire’s-length (rare): at a safe distance in the event of fire. For (to set) on fire, etc. see 2.

c. 1175.  Cott. Hom., 239. Wic drednesse wurð þer þan þat fer to for him abernð þat middernad.

c. 1205.  Lay., 2159.

c. 1325.  Know Thyself, 30, in E. E. P. (1862), 131. Hit fareþ as fuir of heth.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 96. Fur on here houses.

1504.  Wriothesley, Chron. (1875), I. 5. This yeare was a great fier at the ende of London Bridge next to St. Magnus.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 314. Spoylyng the Countrie with yron and fyre as he went.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 9 b. These offices (for feare of fyre) you see, are all severed from the house.

1600.  Holland, Livy, VII. 269. In euerie place nothing but fire and sword.

1667.  Waterhouse (title), A short narrative of the late dreadful fire in London.

1724.  T. Richers, Hist. R. Geneal. Spain, 53. They … put all to Fire and Sword.

1738.  Johnson, London, 13.

1780.  in Lett. 1st Earl Malmesbury (1870) I. 465. This night we are quiet, and I hear no attempts at fire have been made, but I have too good reason to fear that further mischief is still to be expected, and that the authors of these infernal practices have laid their schemes very deeply.

1781.  Cowper, Conv., 755.

1820.  Shelley, Ode to Naples, 148.

1830.  Westm. Rev., XIII. Oct., 313. ‘The dissolution of social order,’ which our fire-and-sword logicians so long and confidently preached as the infallible consequence of the establishment of such maxims of government.

1855.  Trollope, Warden, xix. That would be saving something out of the fire.

1862.  H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 428. Arvika—a place boasting a few streets of wooden houses, wisely placed at fire’s-length from each other.

  fig.  1548.  Hall, Chron., 99 b. The greate fire of this discencion, betwene these twoo noble personages, was thus by the arbitratours to their knowledge and judgement, utterly quenched out.

1654.  trans. Scudery’s Curia Politiæ, 3. To see this fire extinguished, before the flame grew higher.

  b.  Sc. Law. Letters of fire and sword: before the Union, an order authorizing the sheriff to dispossess an obstinate tenant or proceed against a delinquent by any means in his power.

1681.  Visct. Stair, Instit. Law Scot., IV. xxxviii. § 27 (1693), 662. Sometimes they are commanded to appear under the pain of Treason, and Letters of Fire and Sword are given out against them.

a. 1768.  Erskine, Instit. Sc. Law, IV. iii. § 17 (1773), 691. If a party was so obstinate as to oppose by force the execution of these letters of ejection, and still to continue his possession in despite of the law, the Scots privy council, while that court subsisted, granted letters of fire and sword, authorising the sheriff to call for the assistance of the county, and dispossess him by all the methods of force.

1861.  W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., s.v.

  c.  An exclamation used as a call for aid at a conflagration.

1682.  N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, IV. 201.

1819.  T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem., 21.

  d.  To go through fire: to submit to the severest ordeal or proof; to go through fire and water: to encounter or face the greatest dangers or hardest chances.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, lxv[i]. 12. We leordun ðorh fyr & weter.

1534.  Hervet, trans. Xenophon’s Householde, 61 b. They that can brynge theyr soudiours in to suche affection and beleue, that they wolde gladly folowe theym through fyre and water, and throughe all maner of daunger.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., II. ii. 103. Lys. And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake. Ibid. (1598), Merry W., III. iv. 107. A woman would run through fire & water for such a kinde heart.

1660.  Jer. Taylor, Worthy Communicant, ii. § 1. 119. We also are to examine what we are likely to be, or what we have been, in the day of persecution; how we have passed through the fire.

1781.  Cowper, Expostulation, 518.

a. 1796.  Burns, The Ronalds of the Bennals, 19.

  6.  Torture or death by burning. Also, Fire and faggot: see FAGGOT 2. Hence † (To persuade) by fire: by extreme inducements.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 9. And are not sometime perswaded by fire beyond their literalities.

1718.  Prior, Charity, 8.

  7.  Lightning; a flash of lightning; a thunderbolt. More fully, † levenes fire, fire of heaven. † Electrical fire: the electric fluid, electricity.

1154.  O. E. Chron. an. 1122. Com se fir on ufen weard þone stepel.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3046. Ðhunder, and hail, and leuenes fir.

c. 1300.  Cursor M., 19613 (Cott.). Þe fire of heuen þar has him stunt.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 102.

1747.  Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1840, V. 186. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived, when he imagined (in his Sequel), that the electrical fire came down the wire from the ceiling to the gun-barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrized the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. Ibid. (1748), 215. Those vapors, which have both common and electrical fire in them, are better supported than those which have only common fire in them.

1820.  Shelley, Ode W. Wind, ii. 14.

  8.  a. An inflammable composition for producing a conflagration or for use in fireworks; a firework. More fully artificial fire = Fr. feu d’artifice. Obs. exc. in false fire: see FALSE a. 14 b.

1602.  Dekker, Satiro-mastix, E iij. We must haue false fiers to amaze these spangle babies.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xx. 71. Besides what the Harquebusiers had already delivered to them, nine hundred pots of artificial fire.

1662.  J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 51. The Artificial Fires, which are made use of to frighten these Creatures [Elephants], put them into such a disorder, that they doe much more mischief among those who brought them to the Field, then they do among the Enemies.

1700.  J. Jackson, in Pepys, Diary, VI. 232. The rockets, and other smaller fires, were in abundance, and the principal part which concluded the whole, was an engagement between a Castle and 4 Men-of-War, which were contrived to move, and though they played their parts very well, were at last overcome.

1777.  G. Forster, Voy. Round World, II. 92. To amuse him we let off some false fires at the mast-head, with which he was highly entertained.

  b.  Greek fire: a combustible composition for setting fire to an enemy’s ships, works, etc.; so called from being first used by the Greeks of Constantinople, Also wild fire: see WILDFIRE.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 402. Þis Grickische fur is þe luue of ure Lourde.

c. 1477.  Caxton, Jason, 101 b. The two bulles whiche behelde him right fiersly and asprely with her eyen sparklyng and brennyng as fyre Grekyssh.

1855.  J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, I. 90. The receipt for the composition of the Greek Fire may be found in the Treatise of Marcus Grecus.

  9.  Coal Mining. = FIREDAMP.

1883.  in Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining.

  10.  Luminosity or glowing appearance resembling that of fire.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 12.

1735.  Pope, Prol. Sat., 5.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 762. Their soft smiles light the air like a star’s fire.

1865.  J. C. Wilcocks, Sea Fisherman (1875), 271. Should the ‘brime’ or ‘fire’ show itself, the fish will not be likely to strike the nets again till just before dawn.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, x. 164. A great fire of sunset spread over the west, and the far woods became of a rich purple, streaked here and there with lines of pale white mist.

  b.  Fires of heaven, heavenly fires: (poet.) the stars. Fires of St. Elmo: see CORPOSANT. † Fatuous, foolish fire (obs.) = IGNIS FATUUS.

1563.  W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 11 b. This impression seene on the land, is called in Latine Ignis fatuus, foolish fire, that hurteth not, but onely feareth fooles.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., I. iv. 39.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 256.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. xxi. 134. Floating bodies of fire, which assume different names, rather from their accidental forms than from any real difference between them, are seen without surprise. The draco volans or flying dragon, as it is called; the ignis fatuus, or wandering fire; the fires of St. Helmo, or the mariner’s light, are every where frequent: and of these we have numberless descriptions.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, iv. 255.

  11.  Heating quality (in liquors, etc.); concr. in jocular use, ‘something to warm one,’ ardent spirit. Also (see quot. 1819).

1737.  Fielding, Hist. Reg., II. Wks. 1882, X. 223. We’ll go take a little fire, for ’tis confounded cold upon the stage.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., XIV. s.v. Fire, Also the heat of fermenting substances, and of other kinds of chemical combinations, has often been called their fire.

1851.  Thackeray, Eng. Hum., ii. Joseph was of a cold nature, and needed perhaps the fire of wine to warm his blood.

1883.  Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 37. One corner of land after another is tried with one kind of grape after another…. Those lodes and pockets of earth, more precious than the precious ores, that yield inimitable fragrance and soft fire; those virtuous Bonanzas, where the soil has sublimated under sun and stars to something finer, and the wine is bottled poetry: these still lie undiscovered.

  12.  Burning heat produced by disease; fever, inflammation. Also disease viewed as a consuming agency. St. Anthony’s fire: erysipelas; also, † wild fire, WILDFIRE. † St. Francis’ fire (Spenser): ? = St. Anthony’s fire.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Parson’s T., ¶ 427. By the fyr of seint Antony, or by cancre, or by other swich meschaunce.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 223. Panaricium is an enpostym … aboute þe nail and is swiþe hoot and … ful of fier.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 447. S. Antonies fire, ignis sacer.

1580.  Blundevil, Horsemanship, IV. clxv. 69. You must get it [the pellet] out with an instrument meet for the purpose. Then to kill the fire. Take [etc.].

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 35.

1686.  Lady Russell, Lett., I. xxxvi. 94. She has been ill of St. Anthony’s fire, as we call it.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 727.

1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1756), I. 301. The Inflammation, which they term Fire, will go off by a Discharge of Serous and other Humours from such superficial Wounds.

1843.  Sir T. Watson, Lect. Physic, II. lxxxix. 767. Erysipelas … called in Scotland the rose, and in this country St. Anthony’s fire.

1866.  G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxvi. (1878), 460. Her face, once more flushed in those two spots with the glow of the unseen fire of disease.

  13.  In certain figurative applications of sense 1.

  a.  A burning passion or feeling, esp. of love or rage.

1340.  Hampole, Psalter, Prol. Þai … kyndils þaire willis wiþ þe fyre of luf.

1435.  Misyn, Fire of Love, 1. Richard Hampole, hys boke has named Incendium Amoris, þat is to say ‘þe fyer of lufe.’

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 68. Entertaine him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust haue melted him in his owne greace.

1694.  F. Bragge, Practical Discourses upon the Parables of Our Blessed Saviour, xii. 408. Rage, and Fury, and Impatience, and the like, which attend unsatisfied Desires, are likewise frequently attended with the Epithet of Fire.

1780.  Cowper, Table T., 605.

1818.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, X. xl.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 955.

  b.  Ardour of temperament; ardent courage or zeal; fervour, enthusiasm, spirit.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 177.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 61, 30 Aug., ¶ 1. Among many Phrases which have crept into Conversation … there is not one which misleads me more, than that of a Fellow of a great deal of Fire.

1814.  Sporting Mag., XLIV. 92. Both were full of fire and courage.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), II. i. 5. Hereward haranguing them in words of fire.

  c.  Liveliness and warmth of imagination, brightness of fancy; power of genius, vivacity; poetic inspiration.

1656.  Cowley, Pindar. Odes, To Mr. Hobs, vi.

1680–90.  Temple, Ess. Poetry, Wks. 1731, I. 237. Homer had more Fire and Rapture, Virgil more Light and Swiftness; or at least the Poetical Fire was more raging in one, but clearer in the other, which makes the first more amazing and the latter more agreeable.

1737.  Pope, Hor. Epist., II. i. 274.

1847.  Illust. Lond. News, 10 July, 27/1. As an actress, she has fire and intelligence.

1869.  J. Martineau, Ess., II. 228. For the poet there is a season of inward fire which must not be permitted to damp itself down; its later gleams are fitful, and do not suffice to conquer the colder colouring of mere thought.

1877.  R. W. Dale, Lect. Preach., i. 26. They have neither the fire of a human genius nor the fire of a Divine zeal.

  14.  The action of firing guns, etc.; discharge of fire-arms; also in phrases, † to give, make (a) fire. To open fire: to begin firing. Between two fires: lit. and fig. Under fire: within the range of an enemy’s guns. † Weapon of fire = FIRE-ARM.

  [The similar use of F. feu shows that this is not (as is often said) a separate word f. FIRE v., but a transferred use of the sb. as it occurs in the phrase to give fire (see 1 f) = F. faire feu.]

1590.  J. Smythe, Concern. Weapons, 27. Liking the aforesaid weapons of fire, because they fill means ears and eyes, with such terrible fire, smoke, and noise.

1600.  Sir John Oldcastle, V. ix.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 8. Some of the Soldiers of the Castle gave fire upon them.

1706.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4243/1. We made … great fire all Night with our Cannon.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 80, 11 Oct., ¶ 9. The Charge began with the Fire of Bombs and Grenades, which was so hot, that the Enemy quitted their Post, and we lodged our selves on those Works without Opposition.

1815.  Scott, Paul’s Lett. (1839), 112. ‘One fire,’ said a general officer, whom I have already quoted, ‘struck down seven men of the square with whom I was for the moment; the next was less deadly—it only killed three.’

1816.  Sporting Mag., XLVIII. 237. A learned Barrister was practising a fire at a mark.

1847.  Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, iv. Any time that we are not in great want of venison, you shall have the first fire.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 280. Though most of Mackay’s men had never before been under fire, their behaviour gave promise of Blenheim and Ramilies.

1859.  F. A. Griffiths, The Artillerist’s Manual (1862), 248. A direct fire from a battery is when the line of fire is perpendicular to the parapet.

1885.  Times, 20 Feb., 5/6. He was about to find himself placed between two fires—viz. the Mahdi and the reinforced garrison of Metammeh.

  fig.  1792.  Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 17. If they have received the fire of the grand juries with a good countenance, I shall hope every thing will go on well.

1848.  Thackeray, Gt. Hoggarty Diam., ix. Miss Belinda opening the fire, by saying she understood Mrs. Hoggarty had been calumniating her.

  b.  False fire: see FALSE a. 14 b. Reverse, running fire: see the adjs. Also transf. Kentish fire, a mode of applauding by ‘volleys’ of hand-clapping, etc.: see KENTISH.

  c.  To hang, miss fire: see the vbs.

  B.  Fire- in Comb.

  I.  General relations.

  1.  attributive. a. gen. (sense 1), as fire-chariot, -colour, -crag, -flame, -flash, flood, -glance, -heat, † -leme, -ordeal, -storm, -stream; (sense 3), as fire-beacon, -blaze, -coal, -link, -shine, -signal; (sense 14), as fire-shock.

1804.  Edin. Rev., III. 430. For the Amonian *firebeacons, placed on a round eminence, were called Tith; and such a beacon was Tith-onus, the husband of Aurora, so famous for his longevity.

1605.  Verstegan, Dec. Intell., iii. (1628), 80. This Idoll was made like the Image of death and naked saue onely a sheet about him. In his right hand hee held a torch, or as they terme it a *fire-blase.

1849.  Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 391. Elijah dropping his cloak as the *fire-chariot carries him away.

1640.  Witt’s Recreations, Epitaphs, On a Candle.

a. 1672.  P. S[terry], Wks. (1710), II. 283. The Fire-Coals, which our Saviour taught his Disciples to cast on their Enemies, were bright Beams of Truth; gentle Showers of Sweetness and Love.

1802.  T. Beddoes, Hygëia, v. 17. P. How hot! N. She has been like a fire-coal these two hours.

1811.  Pinkerton, Petral., II. 96. Mr. Shaw again paid us a visit so late as November 1792, when he exhibited some most brilliant specimens of Labrador spar; particularly one of fine, extremely bright, and variegated colours; one pretty large, of the scarce *fire-colour with the purple tinge.

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 332.

1817.  Coleridge, Sibyl. Leaves (1828), II. 304.

1586.  Fetherstone (title), Brutish Thunderbolt, or rather Feeble-*Fier-Flash of Pope Sixtus the Fift, against Henrie … of Navarre.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., I. 35. Lady of the Shepherds, from earthquakes, thunder, and fire-flashes.

1842.  Barham, Ingol. Leg., Smuggler’s Leap.

1821.  Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Wallace, xxvi.

a. 1835.  Mrs. Hemans, Poems, The League of the Alps, iv.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 65. *Fire-heat at 212° of Fahrenheit produced detonation.

a. 1000.  Satan 128 (Gr.).

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxiv. 250. Many grisly and vncouthe syghtes were this yere seen in Englonde, as hostis of men fyghtyng in the skye, & fyre lemys.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1676), 884. Tying Torches of *Fire-links unto their horns, he appointed the nimblest men he had to light them.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. i. 41, note. Savanarola preach’d; but made no such confident Offer, nor durst he venture at that new kind of *Fire-Ordeal.

1871.  Rossetti, Poems, My Sister’s Sleep, v.

1824.  J. Symmons, trans. Æschylus’ Agamemnon, 31, note. This description of the *fire-signals is very finely imagined, and executed with great spirit and sublimity.

1581.  J. Merbecke, A Booke of Notes and Common places, 478. Helias … was taken vp into Heauen in a *fire storme.

1811.  W. J. Hooker, Iceland (1813), II. 142. The *fire-stream over-ran the southern district beneath.

  b.  Of or pertaining to the worship of fire, as fire-deity, -god, -spirit, -temple. Also FIRE-WORSHIP, -WORSHIPPER.

1871.  Tylor, Prim. Cult., II. xvi. 252. We have in this region explicit statements as to a distinct *fire-deity. Ibid., 253. The *Fire-spirit has great influence with the winged aërial supreme deity, wherefore the Indians implore him to be their interpreter, to procure them success in hunting and fishing, fleet horses, obedient wives, and male children.

1815.  Moore, Lalla R. (1817), 258.

1741.  D. Wray, in Athen. Lett. (1792), II. 470. He will give orders for several alterations in the villa, and lay the foundation of a *fire-temple.

  c.  In the names of various receptacles for burning fuel, as fire-bag, -basket, -cage, -chauffer.

1843.  Portlock, Geol., 682. On the outside [of the kiln], also, of each of the eyes, or large fire-holes, a niche is formed to receive the fuel, and is called a *fire-bag.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fire-basket, portable grate.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 862/2. *Fire-cage. A skeleton box or basket of iron for holding lighted fuel.

1558.  Inv. R. Hyndmer, in Wills & Inv. (Surtees), 162. Ij *fyer chavffers.

  d.  Pertaining to the fire of a hearth or furnace, as fire-bellows, -block, -blower, -brush, -cheek, † -cricket, -door, -grate, -nook, -rake, -set, † -stock, -stove.

c. 1475.  Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 779. Hoc reposilium, a *fyirbelowys.

1836.  F. Mahoney, Rel. Father Prout, ii. (1859), 247.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., 65/1. Patent *Fire Blower, for … regulating the draught in ordinary grates.

a. 1745.  Swift, Direct. Servants, Footman. When you are ordered to stir up the Fire, clean away the Ashes from betwixt the Bars with the *Fire-Brush.

1884.  Health Exhib. Catal., 82/1. *Fire Cheeks and Hearths of Marble Mosaic.

1530.  Palsgr., 220/2. *Fyre crycket, cricquet.

1859.  Rankine, Steam Engine, § 304. The *fire-door, which closes the mouth-piece or doorway, and which may or may not have openings and valves in it to admit air.

1664.  Evelyn, Kat. Hort. (1729), 229. Let it be yet so built, that the *Fire-grate stand about three Feet higher than the Floor or Area of the House.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xlix. I then, to their great astonishment, went to the fire-grate,—threw out some rubbish which was put into it,—pulled up the iron back, and removed the bricks.

1845.  R. W. Hamilton, Pop. Educ., ii. (ed. 2), 21. Their huts are seen and their *fire-nooks exposed.

1660.  Hexham, Een kam-slock, a *Fire-rake which Brewers and Bakers use.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fire-set, fireirons.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 161/2. *Fyyr stok.

1756.  Toldervy, Hist. Two Orph., III. 205. He came with … his head into the *fire stove.

  6.  In the names of implements or instruments bearing, containing, or sending forth fire, as fire-arrow, -cane, -gun, -shaft, -spear, -weapon.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xvii. (1840), 291. They would immediately come all running down to the shore, and shoot *fire-arrows at you, and set your boat and ship and all on fire about your ears.

1809.  Naval Chron., XXII. 374. We should indulge them [pirates], at seasonable opportunities, with a few shot and shells, not forgetting Congreve’s fire arrows.

1887.  Graphic, 17 Dec., 662/1. He … had produced a *‘fire-cane,’ which warmed its owner’s hand, and supplied him with lighting for his cigar.

1680.  H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 88. Which Centaures here are set out still more monstrously, as killing men by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths; as it may seem at a distance when they let off their *Fireguns and Pistols.

1628.  (title) A new invention of Shooting *Fire-Shafts in Long-Bowes.

1549.  Compl. Scot., vi. 42. Mak reddy ȝour corsbollis, hand bollis, *fyir speyris, hail schot, lancis, pikkis, halbardis, rondellis, tua handit sourdis and tairgis.

1616.  Bingham, Ælian’s Tactics, ii. 25, note. The *fire-weapons haue theire advantages.

1860.  J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, Supp. 489. The fire-pot of the Arabian treatise described in our first volume is here seen in action; and from the accounts in that old treatise of the analogous fire-weapons, the ‘massue de guerre,’ the ‘massue pour asperger,’ &c., we may gather a pretty accurate notion both of the manner of constructing and applying these diabolical agents.

  f.  In the names of various kinds of fireworks, as fire-cracker, † -lance, † -sword, † -target.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Fire-crackers, a preparation of gunpowder, &c., discharged for amusement.

1634.  J. Bate, Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 89. The description and making of three sorts of *Fire-lances. Ibid., II. 88. How to make a *fire sword. Ibid., II. 94. How to make a *Fire-target.

  g.  Pertaining to a conflagration (sense 5), (a) gen. as fire-bell, -drum, -gown, -ladder, -loss, -shell, -telegraph, -watch; (b) used in kindling a conflagration, as fire-bavin, -fagot, -mixture; (c) concerned with the extinction of a conflagration, as fire-barrow, -boat, -bucket, -float, -main, -marshal (U.S.), -pipe, -pump.

1890.  Daily News, 9 Jan., 2/5. *Fire barrows and hose were quickly on the spot.

1832.  Webster, *Firebavin, a bundle of brush-wood, used in fireships.

a. 1626.  Middleton, Changeling, V.

1867.  Dickens, Lett., 22 Dec. (1880), II. 320. I don’t think a single night has passed since I have been under the protection of the Eagle, but I have heard the fire bells dolefully clanging all over the city.

1876.  N. Y. Nautical Gaz., in Pract. Mag., VI. 73. An iron *fire-boat.

1585.  Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 279. Incendiarij siphones.… *Fire buckets, or any thing seruing to quench fire.

1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxvii. Rows of fire-buckets for dashing out a conflagration in its first spark, and saving the immense wealth in notes and bonds belonging to the company.

1814.  Scott, Wav., xxxiv. The drum advanced, beating no measured martial time, but a kind of rub-a-dub-dub like that with which the *fire-drum alarms the slumbering artisans of a Scotch burgh.

1828–40.  Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 137. Iron chains, with grappling hooks attached to them, and piles of *fire-fagots, mixed with bundles of pitch and flax, bound into large masses, shaped like casks, were in readiness.

1887.  Daily News, 18 June, 3/5. Five *fire-floats were quickly sent from ships in the harbour.

1874.  Mrs. Whitney, We Girls, xii. 249. Mrs. Hobart has a *‘fire-gown.’ That is what she calls it; she made it for a fire, or for illness, or any night-alarm.

1832.  Examiner, 700/1. It was 20 minutes … before the *fire-ladders were brought.

1891.  Daily News, 30 Nov., 5/4. A professional *fire-loss assessor.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fire-main, waterpipe for occasions of conflagration.

1894.  Stead, If Christ came to Chicago! 295–6. *Fire-Marshal Swenie has remained in command of the firemen for many years, and the administration of the department has been conducted on business principles, with results in efficiency which are a standing reproof to every other department in the city.

1855.  J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, I. 90. The terrors of these early *fire-mixtures were enhanced by the belief that not only they, but the flames kindled by them, were inextinguishable by water.

c. 1865.  Ld. Brougham, in Circ. Sc., I. Introd. 6. Water runs when forced out of a pump, or from a *fire-pipe, or from the spout of a kettle or tea-pot.

1892.  Pall Mall G., 9 Feb., 2/1. The *fire-pump … has a throwing power of sixty feet above the highest pinnacle of the hotel.

1818.  M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 70. A *fire-shell is blown, and all the negroes of the adjoining plantations hasten to give their assistance.

1694.  Acc. Sweden, 27. There is also a *Fire-Watch by Night, who walks about only to that Purpose; and in each Church-Steeple Watch is kept, and a Bell tolled upon the first Appearance of any Fire.

1673.  F. Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, A iij b. The next year 1666 being the *Fire year.

  2.  objective (sense 1), as fire-bringer, -spewer, -striker, -user; fire-bearing, -belching, -breathing, -darting, -foaming, -resisting, -spitting, -using adjs.; (sense 3), as fire-holder, -keeper, -kindler, -trimmer; fire-making vbl. sb.; fire-kindling vbl. sb. and adj.; (sense 5), as fire-annihilator, -extinguisher, -extinguishing, -quencher, -quenching.

1849.  Mech. Mag., LI. 424. The so-called *Fire Annihilator of Mr. Phillips.

1853.  Grote, Greece, II. lxxxiv. XI. 153. To accelerate the process, and to forestal Dion’s arrival, which they fully expected—they set fire to the city in several places, with torches and *fire-bearing arrows.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 22.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VI. i. 267. On a sudden, the Earth yawns asunder, and amid Tartarean smoke, and glare of fierce brightness, rises Sansculottism, many-headed, fire-breathing.

1594.  Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i.

1769.  Goldsm., Hist. Rome (1786), I. 199. The Samnites at length fled, averring that they were not able to withstand the fierce looks and the fire darting eyes of the Romans.

1849.  Mech. Mag., LI. 381. The patentee next describes a portable *fire-extinguisher.

1876.  N. Y. Nautical Gaz., in Pract. Mag., VI. 73. This boat and her *fire-extinguishing apparatus deserve detailed description.

1565.  Golding, Ovid’s Met., II. (1593), 31.

1872.  H. W. Taunt, Map Thames, 49/1. Camp furniture need not be very elaborate. A frying-pan, pot, and kettle, all to fit a *fireholder.

1881.  Greener, Gun (ed. 2), 45. These fire-holders were usually attached to the girdle.

1873.  L. Wallace, Fair God, V. iv. 278. When my sword is at the throats of the *fire-keepers [of an Aztec temple], Heaven help me to slay them!

1643.  [Angier], Lanc. Vall. Achor, 21. God presently commanded the winde to blow from another point, to darken and smother the *fire-kindlers.

1849.  E. C. Otté, trans. Humboldt’s Cosmos, II. 508, note. The ideal relation of the ‘fire-kindler’ (πυρκαεύς), Prometheus, to the burning mountain. Ibid. The unbinding of the *fire-kindling Titan on the Caucasus by Hercules.

1884.  Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 107. Brown begged I would drink to the *‘fire-kindling.’

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 369. Som sayd it was long on the *fuyr-makyng.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 228. There are a number of stories, old and new, of tribes of mankind living in ignorance of the art of fire-making.

1690.  Norris, Beatitudes (1692), 178. The business of a *Fire-quencher, who, tho’ he may, with plying of Engins, and great a-do, rescue the Pile of Building from the devouring Flames, yet his Eyes will be sure to smart with the Smoak.

1718.  J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1730), II. xvii. § 25. The Pumps in a *Fire-quenching-Engine do, by pressing the Water, raise a mighty Stream.

1612.  Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 116. Maintained with such *fier-resisting meanes that it cannot possibly melte or burne down.

1850.  Chubb, Locks & Keys, 24. Safes which were sold as fire-resisting.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 132/1. A *Fire spewer, igniuomus.

1631.  T. Fuller, David’s Heinous Sin, xxxix.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 132/1. A *Fire stryker, fugillator.

1891.  Daily News, 26 Sept., 2/5. Prisoner and Jensen joined the ship … as *fire-trimmers.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 235. It will be safer to wait for more evidence before deciding positively that any known race of *fire-users have not also been fire-makers, especially as the carrying about of burning brands, so as to be able to make a fire wherever they went at a moment’s notice, was the habitual practice in parts of Australia where the natives were perfectly able to make new fire, if they chose, with their fire-drill.

1862.  D. Wilson, Preh. Man, v. (1865), 82. Man is peculiarly *fire-using.

  3.  instrumental, locative, and originative, as fire-baptism; fire-armed, -baptized, -bellied, -born, -burning, -burnt, -clad, † -coached, -cracked, -crowned, -footed, -gilt, † -given, -hardened, -hooped, -lighted, -lipped, -lit, -marked, -mouthed, -pitted, -robed, -scarred, -scathed, -seamed, -warmed, -wheeled, -winged adjs.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. I. Eden, 248.

1682.  Dryden & Lee, Dk. of Guise, III. i.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. vii. It is from this hour that I incline to date my Spiritual New-birth, or Baphometic *Fire-baptism; perhaps I directly thereupon began to be a Man. Ibid., II. viii. The *fire-baptised soul, long so scathed and thunder-riven, here feels its own Freedom, which feeling is its Baphometic Baptism.

1892.  Daily News, 5 May, 5/4. The little *‘fire-bellied toad,’ of … poisonous properties.

1846.  R. Chambers, Vestiges Creat., vi. (ed. 5), 95. The numerous upbursts and intrusions of *fire-born rock.

c. 1275.  Death, 215, in O. E. Misc., 180.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 290/86. *Furbarnd he was þoru Iuggemont.

1573.  Twyne, Æneid, XI. Kk iij. Poales of length firebrent at end.

1615.  Sylvester, Hymne Almes, 55.

1836–48.  B. D. Walsh, Aristoph., Acharnians, IV. ii.

1870.  Tennyson, Window, 150.

1565.  Golding, Ovid’s Met., II. (1593), 39.

1613.  Chapman, Rev. Bussy D’Ambois, Plays, 1873, II. 148.

1627.  May, Lucan, III. 535 (1635), E iij b.

1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., II. 392.

1850.  Lynch, Theo. Trin., v. 80. The zenith glows like the ceiling of a cheerful, *fire-lighted room.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, iv. (1848), 31.

1849.  Miss Mulock, Ogilvies (1875), 109. In a minute the pleasant *fire-lit room where Mrs. Breynton and Eleanor held their after-dinner chat, was brightened by a presence welcome to both.

1705.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4114/4. A brown Mare … *fire-marked I. I. in the near Buttock.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. ix. 52.

1759.  Mountaine, in Phil. Trans., LI. 290. The sheets and quilt of a bed, near the bell-wire, [were] scorched and *fire-pitted in like manner.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 27.

1853.  C. Kingsley, Hypatia, xiii. 147. Between the bare walls of a doleful *fire-scarred tower in the Campagna of Rome.

1848.  Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 64. The form of the demon is human, but vulgar in its proportions and of a swarthy red, as if *fire-scathed.

1815.  Milman, Fazio (1821), 79.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xv. 173. The cabin, our only *fire-warmed apartment, is the workshop, kitchen, parlor, and hall.

1822.  Milman, Martyr of Antioch, 121.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. 654.

1826.  Milman, A. Boleyn (1827), 39.

  b.  In names of occupations, processes, etc., carried on by the aid of fire, as fire-hunt, † -trade; fire-fishing, -gilding, -hunting, -offering, -polishing, -stivering vbl. sbs. Also forming verbs, as fire-hollow, -hunt.

1831.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 295. Persons employed in *fire-gilding, and others who use mercury, are, it has been observed, compelled by the intolerable evil of sore mouths, &c. to take the necessary precautions against the effect of noxious fumes.

1864.  Tennyson, En. Ard., 564.

1852.  Haliburton, Traits Amer. Humor, III. 171. The *Fire-Hunt was Sam’s hobby, and though the legislature had recently passed an act prohibiting that mode of hunting, he continued to indulge, as freely as ever, in his favourite sport, resolutely maintaining that the law was ‘unconstitootional and agin reason.’

1814.  Sporting Mag., XLIV. 62. The method of approaching … the red deer … by means of *fire-hunting them.

1885.  T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, v. 158. Fire-hunting is never tried in the cattle country; it would be far more likely to result in the death of a steer or pony than in the death of a deer.

1872.  J. G. Murphy, Comm. Lev. i. 9. A *fire-offering; a firing or offering made by fire.

1849.  Pellatt, Curios. Glass Making, 31. By rewarming, technically called *fire polishing, the glass preserves its refractive brilliancy.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Rdr. (1657), 63. In each town these several tradesmen shall be so aptly disposed, as they shall free the rest from danger or offence: *Fire-trades, as Smiths, Forge-men, Brewers, Bakers, Metal-men, &c.

  4.  parasynthetic and similative, as fire-angry, -burning, -flowing, -like, -opalescent, -souled, -spirited, -swift adjs.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxii. 476. I am well sure that Charlemagne shall wexe *fyre angry for it.

1562.  Cooper, Answ. Priv. Masse (Parker Soc.), 66. You lay the cause of private mass upon the key-cold charity of the people; (and perhaps the first occasion came thereof indeed;) but your scalding hot and *fireburning charity may be more justly charged with the continuance thereof.

1820.  Shelley, Vis. Sea, 18.

1567.  J. Maplet, A Greene Forest, or a Naturall Historie, 56. The Peare tree as Isidore witnesseth, is called Pyrus, for that it is in his fashion and kinde of growth, Piramidall or *firelike.

1875.  Tennyson, Q. Mary, I. v.

1882.  F. W. H. Myers, Renewal of Youth, etc., 93.

1876.  Swinburne, Erechth. (ed. 2), 46.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xvii. (1848), 159.

1876.  Swinburne, Erechth. (ed. 2), 16.

  II.  Special comb.

  5.  fire-action, the action of firing, esp. skirmishing in line; fire-adjuster (see quot.); fire-alarm, an automatic arrangement by which notice of fire is given, also attrib.; † fire-amel, enamel produced by fire; fire-ant (see quots.); fire-back, (a) the back wall of a furnace or fire-place; (b) a pheasant of the genus Euplocamus (E. ignitus), hence fire-backed adj. (Cent. Dict.); fire-balloon, a balloon whose buoyancy is derived from the heat of a flaming combustible suspended at its mouth; fire-bank (see quot.); fire-barrel, a cylinder filled with combustibles, used in fire-ships; fire-bar, one of the iron bars of a grate or of a boiler furnace; fire-beater (for -beeter: see BEET v. II) dial., a stoker; fire-bill (see quot.); fire-blast, a disease of certain plants, giving them a scorched appearance; fire-blight, a disease of hops; fire-board, (a) a board used to close up a fireplace in summer, a chimney board; (b) (see quot. 1883); fire-boat = FIRE-SHIP 1; fire-bolt, a thunderbolt; hence fire-bolted adj., struck with lightning; † fire-bome (? bome = BOMB sb. 1), a beacon; fire-boom Naut. (see quot. 1867); fire-boss (U.S.) Mining (see quot.; cf. FIREMAN 5); fire-bottle, an early application of phosphorus for the purpose of fire-lighting; fire-break (U.S.), a cleared space round a homestead, a village, etc., to guard against prairie fires; fire-brick, a brick capable of withstanding intense heat without fusion, also attrib.; fire-bridge (see quot. 1874); † fire-brief, a circular letter asking assistance for sufferers by fire; fire-brigade, an organized body of firemen; † fire-broil, the heat of a conflagration; fire-bug (U.S.), an incendiary; † fire-cane (see quot. 1644); fire-cask, a cask of water, provided as a resource against fire on board ship; fire-chamber (see quot.); † fire-chemise (see quot.); fire-churn = fire-drill; fire-clay, a clay capable of resisting great heat, used for fire-bricks, etc.; fire-club, † (a) a kind of firework; (b) U.S. a club of firemen (?); fire-cock, a cock or spout to give water to extinguish a fire; † fire-coffer, a kind of fireship; fire-company, (a) a fire-brigade; (b) a fire insurance company; fire-crook = FIRE-HOOK; fire-department, (a) the department in an insurance office that deals with insurances against fire; (b) U.S. a body of firemen; fire-dog = ANDIRON; † fire-dragon = FIRE-DRAKE; fire-drill, the name given by Tylor to a primitive contrivance, consisting of an obtuse-pointed stick that is twirled between the hands with the point in a hole in a flat piece of soft wood till fire is produced; hence fire-drilling vbl. sb.; fire-edge, lit. the edge of a weapon hardened in the fire; hence fig. (now only dial.) fire, spirit, ‘freshness’; fire-escape, an apparatus for facilitating the escape of persons from a building on fire; fire-fan, (a) a small hand fire-screen (obs.); (b) (see quot. 1874); fire-fiend, (a) fire personified as an evil spirit of destruction; (b) a fire-god; (c) an incendiary (colloq.); † fire-fit a., fit for burning; fire-flag, (a) a meteoric flame; (b) a flag of distress, when a ship is on fire; fire-flair, the sting-ray, Trygon Pastinaca or Raia Pastinaca; † fire-flyer, a kind of firework; fire-free a., safe from fire, fire-proof; fire-grappling, a grappling iron with which to capture fireships; fire-guard, a wire frame or semicircular railing put in front of a fireplace, to keep children or others from accidental injury; also a grating placed before the bars of a fire to prevent the coals from falling out; fire-hole, (a) a furnace; (b) (see quot. 1835); † fire-hoop, a hoop made of brushwood steeped in tar, etc., set on fire and thrown into an enemy’s ship; fire-hose, a hose-pipe for conveying water to a fire; fire-insurance, insurance against losses by fire; also attrib.; fire-isle, a volcanic island; fire-junk, a kind of fireship; fire-king, (a) fire personified as a monarch; (b) a champion fire-eater; fire-lamp, Mining, a basket of burning coals used (a) to give light to banksmen where gas is not used, (b) to create a draught; fire-lighter, (a) one who kindles a fire; (b) material for lighting fires; fire-lute, a composition or lute capable of resisting great heat; fire-maker, one who lights or makes fire or a fire; fire-marble, Min. = LUMACHEL; fire-mark, the mark left by a branding-iron; fire-measure = PYROMETER; fire-money, a payment for firing at school; † fire-night, a night round the fire-side; fire-opal, a variety of opal showing flame-colored internal reflections; fire-piece, (a) = FIRE-ARM; (b) a picture having as its subject a fire; fire-pile, a pile of wood on which a person is burnt to death, or a corpse is cremated; fire-plug, a contrivance for connecting a hose, or the supply-pipe of a fire-engine, with a water-main in case of fire; fire-policy, the official certificate received from an insurance office, guaranteeing the payment of a certain sum in the case of loss of property by fire; fire-porr, fire-prong dial., a poker; fire-raft, a raft for setting an enemy’s shipping on fire; fire-roll (Naut.), a peculiar beat of the drum on an alarm of fire; fire-room, a room containing a fire-place; † fire-salt a., pungently salt; fire-setting, ‘the softening or cracking of the working-face of a lode, to facilitate excavation, by exposing it to the action of a wood-fire built close against it’ (Raymond, Mining Gloss.); † fire-snort a., sending forth fire through the nose; fire-spout, a jet of volcanic fire (cf. waterspout); fire-sprit (dial.) = FIRE-BRAND; † fire-spy, one who is on the look out for a fire; fire-steel (see quot.); fire-stick, (a) a burning brand; (b) = fire-drill; fire-stink, Mining (see quot. 1881); fire-swab (Naut.), the wet bunch of rope-yarn used to cool a gun in action and swab up any grains of powder; fire-swart a., † (a) blackening with fire; (b) blackened by fire; fire-syringe, a piston and cylinder employed to produce combustion by means of the heat resulting from the compression of air; fire-teazer, a stoker; fire-tile, a tile capable of resisting great heat; fire-tower, (a) a tower with a beacon on its top, serving the purpose of a light-house; (b) a watch-tower to guard against fires in towns; fire-trap, a place with insufficient means of egress in case of fire; fire-tree, (a) a kind of firework; (b) = flame-tree; (c) in New Zealand the Metrosideros tomentosa (Cent. Dict.); † fire-trunk, (a) a kind of projectile or ‘fire-work’; (b) Naut. (see quots.); fire-tube, a pipe-flue; fire-vessel, (a) a receptacle for fire, a fire-pan; (b) = FIRE-SHIP; fire-ward, -warden, U.S. the chief officer of a fire-brigade; † fire-waterwork, the name given by the Marquess of Worcester to a rude steam-engine which he invented; fire-well (see quot.); † fire-wheel, a kind of fire-work, a catherine-wheel; fire-worm, (a) = FIRE-FLY; (b) a glow-worm; fire-wreath = fire-hoop.

1875.  Clery, Min. Tact., ix. 100. *Fire-action was the actual means of victory, gained by the same troops that were formerly used for the shock, but who had instinctively assumed a formation best suited to the effective action of their weapon.

1882.  Sala, America Revisited, i. 268, note. A *‘Fire Adjuster’ is a gentleman employed by an Insurance Company, who is continually going to and fro one end of the United States to the other ‘adjusting’ claims for losses by fire.

1849.  Mech. Mag., LI. 425. A difficulty which has proved fatal to all our *fire alarms.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 849/2. Fire-alarm Telegraph. The name applied to the system of telegraphy usually adopted in this country for giving notice of fires.

1423.  Jas. I, Kingis Q., xlviii. About hir nek, quhite as the *fyre amaille.

1796.  Stedman, Surinam, II. xx. 91. We had frequently been attacked by whole armies of small emmets, called here *fire-ants, from their painful biting.

1863.  Bates, Nat. Amazon, ix. (1864), 241. Fire-ants (formiga de fogo) under the floors.

1862.  Wood, Illustr. Nat. Hist., Birds, 613. The very handsome *Fireback is an Asiatic bird, inhabiting Sumatra.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 862/1. Fire-back. The back-wall of a furnace or fireplace.

1822.  Imison, Elements of Science and Art, I. 170. *Fire-balloons, or those raised by heated air.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, Prol. 74.

1888.  J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge, ix. Coming to the Court for compensation on account of damage done to his straw-yard by a fire-balloon which he (Ricard) had sent up on a Guy Fawkes’ day.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, *Firebank, a spoil-bank which takes fire spontaneously.

1693.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 12. Our English Iron, is generally a course sort of Iron, hard and brittle, fit for *Fire-bars, and other such course Uses.

1844.  Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., III. 312. The fuel is spread over a large surface of fire-bar [in a furnace].

1881.  F. Campin, Mech. Engineering, xii. 168. At a are fire-bars forming the grate.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4082/3. Throwing down *Fire-Barrels.

1883.  Manch. Guardian, 17 Oct., 5/2. A determined attempt was made by a *firebeater … to murder his wife.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Fire-bill, the distribution of the officers and crew in the case of the alarm of fire.

1727.  Desaguliers, in Phil. Trans., XXXIV. 269. That *Fire-Blasts (as the Gardiners call them) may be occasion’d by Solar Rays reflected from, or condens’d by Clouds.

1824.  Forsyth, Fruit Trees, xxvii. 373. This is what is called a fire-blast, which in a few hours hath not only destoyed the fruit and leaves, but often parts of trees, and sometimes entire trees have been killed by it.

1750.  W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., IV. I. vi. 74. They [hops] are subject to the the black and green Lice, Fly, or Worm, the *Fire-blight, and the Mould or Dwindle.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fireboard, chimneyboard.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Fire-board, a piece of board with the word fire painted upon it … to caution men and lads not to take a naked light beyond it.

1885.  A. T. Slosson, How Faith Came and Went, in Harper’s Mag., April, 804/1. There was an open fire-place, but it was closed by a fire-board such as those in use at that time.

1826.  Mrs. Shelley, Last Man, II. ii. 51. *Fire-boats were launched from the various ports, while our troops sometimes recoiled from the devoted courage of men who did not seek to live, but to sell their lives dearly.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, etc. (Arb.), 137.

1832.  Bryant, Hurricane, 37.

1839.  Bailey, Festus (1848), 16/2.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 29. Beekne or *fyrebome, far (pharus P.).

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789). In which sense it [baute dehors] is usually called *fire-boom.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fire-booms, long spars swung out from a ship’s side to prevent the approach of fire-ships … or vessels accidentally on fire.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, *Fire-bosses (U.S.A.), underground officials who examine the mine for gas, and inspect every safety-lamp taken into the colliery.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 122. A most useful application of phosphorus … is the art of making the *fire bottle, that affords immediate light.

1885.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 26 Sept., 4/1. Fears are entertained for the safety of the town, and teams are out plowing *fire-breaks around it.

1793.  Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, IV. 123. Let the whole of the cylinder, above this grate, be lined with *fire bricks, the joints well fitted, and laid in loam.

1865.  Daily Tel., 21 Oct., 5/1. The fire-brick footway.

1854.  Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 263. Mr. Williams’ patent consists essentially in admitting a current of air behind, or through the *fire-bridge, in several small jets or streams, so as readily to mix with the mass of heated hydrocarbons in their escape from the fuel on the grate bars.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 862/2. Fire-bridge. A plate or wall at the back of the furnace to support the ends of the grate-bars and prevent the fuel being carried over.

a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, On the Great Frost, 51.

1838.  Penny Cycl., X. 279. Within a few years the firemen belonging to the different insurance companies in London have been formed into a body—the *Fire Brigade.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 75.

1872.  O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., i. (1885), 7. Political *firebugs we call ’em up our way. Want to substitoot the match-box for the ballot-box.

1883.  Pall Mall G., 6 Sept., 12/1. It is believed there exists an organized band of ‘firebugs.’

1644.  Digby, Two Treatises, I. xvii. 147. The Indian canes (which from thence are called *firecanes) being rubbed with some other sticke of the same nature; if they be first very dry, will of themselues sett on fire.

1670.  Lassels, Voy. Italy, I. Pref. Whiles these boyes might bring home Jewels, Pearls, and many other things of valew, they bring home nothing but firecanes, Parots, and Monkies.

1804.  A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron., III. 101. The only article we now wanted was water. I recollected the *fire-cask in the mizen-chains.

1859.  Rankine, Steam Engine, § 303. In the External Furnace Boiler, the furnace or *fire-chamber is wholly outside of, and partly in contact with, the water vessel or boiler.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 863/1. Fire-chamber. (Puddling.) The chamber at the end of the puddling-furnace, whence the flame passes to the reverberating chamber where the charge is placed.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Chemise, *Fire Chemise, is a piece of Linen Cloth, steep’d in a Composition of Oil, of Petreola, Camphor, and other combustible Matters; us’d at Sea, to set fire to the Enemy’s Vessel.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 253.

1819.  Rees, Cycl., XIV. s.v., A very excellent *fire-clay, which is dug at Heaze-nether-end, Wheatcroft, Birkin Lane, and other places.

1869.  E. A. Parkes, A Manual of Practical Hygiene (ed. 3), 309. The radiating power of the small barrack grate is aided by a well-arranged angle, and by a fireclay back; as the fire is small, however, the radiating power is not great.

1634.  J. Bate, Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 92. The description and making of two sorts of *Fire-clubs.

1826.  Cushing, Newburyport, Pref. Some of these, such as the fire-clubs and engine societies [of the town], he found it necessary to omit entirely.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Cockayne, Wks. (Bohn), II. 67. To wave our own flag at the dinner-table or in the University, is to carry the boisterous dulness of a fire-club into a polite circle.

1707.  Act 6 Anne, c. 58 § 1. To the Intent such Plugs or *Fire Cocks may always upon Occasion of any Fire be opened.

1844.  Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., III. 318. In enclosed premises, especially where the water is kept for the purpose of extinguishing fires, firecocks are much to be preferred [to plugs].

1804.  Naval Chron., XII. 331. There were four *Fire-coffers, filled with combustibles, which swim just above the surface of the water, and being nearly of the same colour, are hardly perceptible, particuarly of a dark night: each of these was filled with about forty barrels of powder.

1832.  Webster, *Fire-company, a company of men for managing an engine to extinguish fire.

a. 1668.  Davenant, Siege Rhodes (1673), 20.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fire department, body of firemen.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, x. None of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their boots upon the *fire-dogs in the common room, and be not at all particular on the subject of spittoons.

1556.  Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 3. Soch a stronge wynde in the north-est that it overturnyd houses, toweres, trees, and in the ayre was sene *fyere draggons and sprettes flyenge.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 228. The use of the *fire-drill, leaves no doubt that the Guanches knew how to produce and use fire at the time of the European expeditions in the 14th and 15th centuries. Ibid., 237. It comes much nearer than ‘fire-drilling’ to the yet simpler process of striking fire with two pieces of split bamboo.

1614.  Markham, Cheap Husb., I. ii. (1668), 29. [To put a horse to these lessons] after his *fireedge is taken away, will but bring him to a loathing of his instruction.

a. 1684.  Leighton, Comm. 1 Peter iii. 16 (ed. Valpy), 388. Blunt that fire-edge upon your own hard and disordered hearts, that others may meet with nothing but charity and lenity at your hands.

1878.  Cumberld. Gloss., ‘He gallop’t his laal nag till t’ fire edge was off.’

1788.  Specif. Dufour’s Patent, No. 1652. 1. A Machine called a *Fire escape.

1832.  Examiner, 678/1. They … rush to the fire-escapes.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Fire-fanns, little Hand-Skreens for the Fire.

1706.  Collier, Refl. Ridic., 43. They praise the Cieling, the Alcove, the Bed, the Elbow-Chair, the Fire-Fan that is offer’d them, and the little barking Dog.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 867/2. Fire-fan. A small blast apparatus adapted to a portable forge, or one—say a locksmith’s—which has small proportions.

1815.  Moore, Lalla R. (1817), 250.

1595.  Chapman, Ovid’s Banquet of Sence, C j b.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. vi.

1879.  Ann. Reg., 22. The red ensign reversed (fire-flag) was run up at half-past one in the afternoon, and it was after five o’clock before it was hauled down as a signal that the fire had been extinguished.

a. 1705.  Ray, Syn. Method. Piscium (1713), 24. Pastinaca marina … the *Fire-Flaire.

1861.  J. Couch, Fishes Brit. Isl. (1862), I. 74. Paulus Ægineta, a physician of Greece, speaking of cartilaginous fishes, says:—‘The Torpedo and Fireflair have soft and sweet flesh, which is easily digested.’

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 30. Charges for *fire-flyers and Wheels, of four, five, and six Ounce Rockets.

1650.  Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, II. v. 122. These caves (being only a cellar by nature) were by Art contrived into severall rooms, and by industry fortified even unto admiration. So well man’d, they could not be stormed, well victualled, they could not be starved, and (not having any combustible matter about them) fire-free they could not be burned, so thick, they could not be battered, so high, they could not be scaled, and so low, they could not be undermined.

1853.  Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges (ed. 3), 111. Light boats were constantly kept in readiness, with *fire-grapplings, to meet and anchor anything that might be drifted down the stream.

1852.  Burn, Nav. & Mil. Tech. Fr. Dict., II. 96. *Fire-guard.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 362. The *fire-hole, or furnace, enters the oven in a direction, diagonal with the farthest corner.

1835.  Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., Explan. Terms, p. xxviii. Fire hole, a hole in the ice, kept open in order to obtain water to extinguish fire.

1876.  C. H. Davis, Polaris Exp., ix. 217. The crew, during the two weeks of Hall’s illness, had been employed in their ordinary duties, such as cleaning decks, keeping the fire-hole open, procuring ice, and other like work.

1585.  Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 279 Malleoli … *fire hoopes.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Fire-hoops.

1883.  Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters, in Century Mag., XXVII. Nov., 33/2. The pines go right up overhead; a little more, and the stream might have played, like a *fire-hose, on the Toll House roof.

1822.  Lond. Directory, 6. Norwich Union *fire-insurance Society.

1858.  Ld. St. Leonards, Handy-bk. Prop. Law, vii. 45. A word of advice about your Fire Insurance.

1818.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, VII. viii. 8.

1884.  Chr. World, 28 Aug., 641/3. The burning gunboats and *fire-junks.

1829.  Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 101. Men have crossed oceans by steam; the Birmingham *Fire-king has visited the fabulous East; and the genius of the Cape, were there any Camoens now to sing it, has again been alarmed, and with far stranger thunders than Gama’s.

1861.  The Leisure Hour, X. 17 Oct., 661/1–2. The dwellings were generally of wood pitched on the outside; the roofs were thatched; the streets were narrow, the upper stories of the houses on opposite sides projected so as nearly to touch each other; the woodwork was dry and combustible, owing to the heat and drought of the preceding month; and at the same time the wind blew furiously from the east. Thus aided, the fire-king marched victoriously from east to west, and took possession of more than four hundred acres of ground.

1876.  Chamb. Jrnl., 11 Nov., 733/1. After dinner, the fire-king devoured flaming brimstone by way of dessert; chewed and swallowed burning coals; melted a beer-glass and then ate it up, or drank it down; put a live-coal on his tongue, placed an oyster on the coal, blew this strange substitute for a fire-place with bellows, and so continued until the oyster was roasted or scalloped.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, *Fire-lamp.

1779.  Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg. (1780), 127/1. Will the deputy, the clerks, or even the *fire-lighter come to prove it?

1758.  The Elaboratory laid open, Introduction, 51. The following composition, which, for the sake of brevity, I call the *fire-lute, where I have occasion to mention it, will, however, extremely well answer this end.

1710.  Palmer, Proverbs, 61. Even from the *Fire-makers and Necessary-Women, to the Groom of the Stole and Grand Vizier.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 228. There are a number of stories, old and new, of tribes of mankind living in ignorance of the art of fire-making. Such a state of things is indeed usually presupposed by the widespread legends of first fire-makers or fire-bringers.

1816.  W. Phillips, Min. (1818), 97. It has obtained the name of *Fire marble.

a. 1661.  Holyday, Juvenal, 253.

1690.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2571/4. Lost … a brown Gelding … a Flower-de-luce Fire mark on the near Hip.

1833.  N. Arnott, Physics, II. 115. The apparatus has been called Wedgewood’s Pyrometer, or *fire-measure.

1721.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 74. All gratuities whatsoever such as entrance money, cockpenny, *fire money, and quarteridge.

1653.  Noctes Hibernæ, i. 3. Some have learned more of their Teacher … on a *fire-night, than sitting at the desk all the day.

1816.  R. Jameson, Char. Min., I. 238. Third Sub-species, *Fire Opal.

1738.  [G. Smith], Curious Relations, II. 358. Twenty-seven Foresters, with *Fire-Pieces in their Arms.

1775.  J. Wright, Let., in Athenæum, 10 July (1886), 56/3. I am confident I have some enemies in this place who propagate a report that I paint fire-pieces admirably, but they never heard of my painting portraits.

1664.  H. More, Myst. Iniq., xv. 167. What shall we say to the Multitudes of those that are thus Martyred, I mean not only in Succession, but at a Clap, by Thirties, Fourscores, and Hundreds at a time, either at one Common *Fire-pyle, or else in Barns and Dwelling-Houses; severe Officers with their Iron Weapons forcing them back as often as the Heat and Smoak would drive them out to seek cooler Air?

1863.  Lytton, Caxtoniana, in Blackw. Mag., XCIV. Sept., 292/1. The one is Hercules assoiled from mortal stain when separated from mortal labour, who has ascended from the fire-pile to the Nectar Hall of Olympus.

1713.  Lond. Gaz., No. 5116/11. Scarcity of Water, occasion’d by the want of *Fire-Plugs in the Street.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xx. The pony looked with great attention into a fire-plug which was near him, and appeared to be quite absorbed in contemplating it.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Fire-policy. A transaction effected at an insurance-office, whereby, in consideration of a single or periodical payment of premium, the company engages to pay to the assured person such loss as may occur by fire to his property.

1558.  Inv. R. Hyndmer, in Wills & Inv. (Surtees), 162. A *fyer porre, a payre of tonges [etc.].

1855.  Whitby Gloss., Fire-porr.

1568.  Inventory W. Strickland, in Richmond Wills & Inv. (Surtees), 222. A pair tonngs, a *fyer pronge, iij s. iiij d.

1776.  T. Jefferson, Lett., Writ. 1893, II. 83. One of the two fire-rafts prepared for that purpose grappled the Phenix ten minutes, but was cleared away at last.

1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 52. Parties were also sent in the men-of-war’s boats up the river, to reconnoitre any defences the Burmas might have constructed, and destroy any armed boats or fire-rafts they might meet with.

1830.  Marryat, King’s Own, lii. He desired the *‘fire-roll’ to be beat by the drummer, and sent down to ascertain the extent of the mischief.

1805.  Forsyth, Beauties Scotl. (1806), III. 123. The late duke in his lifetime built one wing of a new castle of very strong and elegant work, in which there are between fifty and sixty *fire-rooms.

1650.  Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, II. xii. 246. Partly because the water hereof was salt with a witness, *fire-salt, as I may say.

1611.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III. Schisme, 628.

1794.  Sullivan, View Nat., II. 184. Three *fire-spouts broke out. After rising to a considerable height in the air, they were collected into one stream.

1811.  W. J. Hooker, Iceland (1813), II. 128. Several fire-spouts were distinctly seen, for the first time, rising from among the mountains towards the north.

1848.  C. Brontë, J. Eyre (1857), 267. I have seen what a *fire-sprit you can be when you are indignant.

1676.  C. Hatton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 141. He imagining I wase one of my L^d Craven’s *fire-spyes.

1585.  Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 243–4. Igniarium.… A *firesteele wherewith to strike fire out of a flint.

c. 1300.  Havelok, 966. Was it nouth worth a *fir sticke.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xi. 158. At a worde, thou playest the babe, who thinkes his Nurce does him wrong when she kembes his head or puts on his cloathes, or rather when sometymes she plucks a firesticke from him, or takes a knife out of his hand: that is to say, thou misconstrewest al the good which the bountifull prouidence of God doth vnto thee.

1794–6.  E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), I. 30. If a fire-stick be whirled round in the dark, a luminous circle appears to the observer.

1833.  Sturt, Exped. S. Australia, I. iii. 105. Several carried fire-sticks.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ix. 238. For many years, flint and steel could not drive it [the fire-drill] out of use among the natives, who went on carrying every man his fire-sticks.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Fire-stink. The stench from decomposing iron pyrites, caused by the formation of sulphuretted hydrogen.

1855.  Ogilvie, Suppl., *Fire-swab. In ships, a bunch of rope-yarn, secured to the tompion, and immersed in water, to wet the gun, and clear away any particles of powder, &c.

a. 1000.  Crist, 984 (Gr.). Færerð æfter foldan    *fyrswearta leȝ.

a. 1849.  W. Taylor, in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., IV. 93.

1863.  Tyndall, Heat, i. 13. The *fire syringe.

1827.  Westm. Rev., VII. 279. The very *fire-teazer who holds the soul of the steam-boat and the lives of all the passengers in his hands, is a man of head; he must be educated; and so he is.

1843.  Mill, Logic, I. I. iv. § 1. 105. The fire-teazer of a modern steam-engine produces by his exertions far greater effects than Milo of Crotona could, but he is not therefore a stronger man.

1854.  Romalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 348. The under-surface of the cylinder being protected by *fire tiles from the direct and too powerful action of the fire.

1827.  G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, Preface, p. xlvi. They have of late obtained the names in general of *fire towers.

1887.  Spectator, LX. 28 May, 722/2. No especial blame is yet attached to any one, and the panic was less severe than is usual in such scenes; but the building appears to have been a regular *fire-trap.

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., IV. iii. 332. These exhibitions were very clumsily contrived, consisting chiefly in wheels, *fire-trees, jerbs, and rockets.

1639.  J. C[ruso], Art of Warre, 154. To make a *fire-trunk. Take a piece of light wood … bore it through … with a hole of an inch in diameter;… place at the one end an half pike…. To charge the trunk, put a charge of beaten powder in the bottome [etc.].

1687.  J. Richards, Jrnl. Siege Buda, 26. Stones, Granadoes, Arrows, Bullets, and Fire-Trunks.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Sausisson, the trough, of fausage, filled with powder, which communicates the flame from the train to the fire-trunks or powder-barrels in a fire-ship.

1830.  Falconer’s Dict. Marine, Fire-trunks are wooden funnels fixed in fire-ships under the shrouds, to convey the flames to the masts, rigging, and sails.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fire-tube, pipeflue.

1382.  Wyclif, Ex. xxvii. 3. Toonges, and hokes, and *fyer vessels.

1827.  Examiner, 723/2. The Dartmouth sending a boat to one of the fire-vessels.

1763.  J. Adams, Diary, Feb. Wks. 1850, II. 144. Collectors, wardens, *fire-wards, and representatives, are regularly chosen.

1832.  Webster, Fire-ward, Firewarden.

1663.  Mrq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., Index. A *Fire Water-work 68.

1879.  Geikie, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), X. 250/1. Emanations of carburetted hydrogen, which, when they take fire, are known as *Fire-wells.

1634.  J. Bate, Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 77. How to make Gironells or *fire wheeles.

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 27. The fire wheels that are used on land, turn upon an iron pin or bolt, drawn or screwed into a post.

1567.  J. Maplet, A Greene Forest, or a Naturall Historie, 111. Another which is called the *fier Worme, & semeth as it were to be a kinde of Spider.

1821.  Byron, Cain, II. i.

1639.  J. C[ruso], Art of Warre, 93. Fire-balls, granadoes, *fire-wreathes, and fire-trunks.

1862.  H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 346, note. Fireworks were thrown by hand from the yard-arms of the ships—fire-arrows shot from the bows, as well as fire-wreaths cast into the vessels of the enemy.

  b.  In various plant-names, as fire-bush (see quot.); fire-grass dial., parsley piert (Alchemilla arvensis), so called because used as a remedy for erysipelas (J. Smith, Dom. Bot., 1871); fire-leaves, (a) Plantago media; (b) Scabiosa succisa; fire-pink (see quot.); fire-weed, applied to various plants (see quots.) that spring up on burnt land.

1882.  The Garden, XXI. 13 May, 322/2. The *Fire Bush (Embothrium coccineum) … which thrives so well in the genial climate of Devonshire.

1860.  Gard. Chron., 11 Aug., 738/1. *Fire-leaves. In Gloucestershire the name is given to the leaves of Plantains; and we have heard it in Herefordshire used for the Scabiosa succisa (Devil’s bit).

1882.  The Garden, XXI. 6 May, 307/2. The *Fire Pink (Silene virginica).—The flowers of this Catchfly are unsurpassed as regards brilliancy by those of any other plant, and on this account are extremely showy.

1792.  J. Belknap, Hist. New-Hampshire, III. 133. No other culture being necessary or practicable, but the cutting of the *fireweed, which spontaneously grows on all burnt land.

1829.  Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 706. Senecio hieracifolius is the pest of newly cleared ground in North America, as S. vulgaris is in Europe. It is known by the name of the Fire-weed.

1857.  Thoreau, Maine, IV. (1894), 350. There were great fields of fire-weed (Epilobium angustifolium) on all sides, the most extensive that I ever saw, which presented great masses of pink.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., II. 104. In Virginia, the Thorn-Apple is called Fireweed, because it rises on spots where the fire has levelled the forest trees.

1866.  Treas. Bot., Fireweed. An American name for Erechtites hieracifolia.

1892.  R. Kipling, in Times (weekly ed.), 24 Nov., 13/3. The fire-weed glows in the centre of the driveways, mocking the arrogant advertisements in the empty shops.

  c.  In provincial or local names of birds and insects, as fire-crest, the golden-crested wren (Regulus ignicapillus); also fire-crested wren; fire-flirt, the redstart (Ruticilla phœnicurus); fire-hang-bird, the Baltimore oriole (see FIRE-BIRD); fire-tail, (a) the redstart; (b) a small finch-like bird of Tasmania; also, fire-tailed finch; (c) (see quot. 1868).

1885.  Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 229. *Fire crest. Ibid., 13. Redstart … *Fire flirt.

1855.  Lowell, Lett. to Stillman, 21 May (1894), I. 232. The linnets, catbirds, *fire hang-birds, and robins are all singing hymeneals to the Spring, and she trembles through all her wreaths of new-born leaves and seems equally pleased with each of them.

1802.  G. Montagu, Ornith. Dict. (1833), 412. *Fire-tail … the Redstart.

1865.  Gould, Hdbk. Birds Australia, I. 406. Zonæginthus bellus, Fire-tailed Finch … Fire-tail.

1867.  F. P. Verney, Stone Edge, in Cornh. Mag., XV. 593. ‘There’s a firetail,’ said the boy, interrupting the recital of his wrongs to throw a stone at a redstart.

1868.  Wood, Homes without H., xxv. 481. Those splendid insects which are popularly called Ruby-tailed Flies or Firetails, and scientifically are termed Chrysididæ, are also to be numbered among the parasitic insects.