fire

noun

1. (uncountable)A (usually self-sustaining) chemical reaction involving the bonding of oxygen with carbon or other fuel, with the production of heat and the presence of flame or smouldering.
2. (countable)An instance of this chemical reaction, especially when intentionally created and maintained in a specific location to a useful end (such as a campfire or a hearth fire).

   “We sat about the fire singing songs and telling tales.”

   “We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.”

3. (countable)The occurrence, often accidental, of fire in a certain place, causing damage and danger.

   “There was a fire at the school last night and the whole place burned down.”

   “During hot and dry summers many fires in forests are caused by regardlessly discarded cigarette butts.”

   “Efforts to fight the fires in New South Wales and Victoria were hampered as large fires converged and created their own violent weather systems. The fire created dry lightning storms so severe that planes had to be grounded.”

4. (uncountable)The aforementioned chemical reaction of burning, considered one of the Classical elements or basic elements of alchemy.
5. (British, countable)A heater or stove used in place of a real fire (such as an electric fire).
6. (countable)The elements necessary to start a fire.

   “The fire was laid and needed to be lit.”

7. (uncountable)The bullets or other projectiles fired from a gun or other ranged weapon.

   “The fire from the enemy guns kept us from attacking.”

8. (countable)A planned bombardment by artillery or similar weapons, or the capability to deliver such.

   “We dominated the battlespace with our fires.”

9. (countable, slang)A firearm.

   “I used to work at Five Below but now I keep that fire below”

10. (countable, figuratively)A barrage, volley

    “In the district of Erfurt a very heavy sheaf [...] is called the Great Mother, and is carried on the last waggon to the barn, where all hands lift it down amid a fire of jokes.”

11. (countable, uncountable)An instance of firing one or more rocket engines.

    “static fire”

12. (countable, uncountable)Strength of passion, whether love or hate.

    “He had fire in his temper.”

    “You call it hope—that fire of fire! It is but agony of desire: […]”

13. (countable, uncountable)Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm.

    “And bless their critic with a poet's fire.”

    “Attendance of QN meetings has been dwindling, and the creative fire drained from the organization by the dead hand of wannabe bureaucrats bend ^([sic]) on thought control. The action has long since been elsewhere.”

14. (countable, uncountable)Splendour; brilliancy; lustre; hence, a star.

    “Stars, hide your fires.”

    “As in a zodiac representing the heavenly fires.”

15. (countable, uncountable)A severe trial; anything inflaming or provoking.
16. (countable, uncountable)Red coloration in a piece of opal.
17. (countable, uncountable)The capacity of a gemstone, especially a faceted, cut gemstone, that is transparent to visible light, to disperse white light into its multispectral component parts, resulting in a flash of different colors, the richness and dispersion of which increases the gemstone's value.

    “In other words, the more times a light ray reflects within a diamond, the greater the separation of the spectral colors—and the more obvious the appearance of fire—will be. Fire in a gemstone is best defined as "the visible extent of light dispersed into spectral colors" (Reinitz et al., 2001). In a polished diamond, this is seen as flares or flashes of color that appear and disappear as the diamond, the observer, or the light source moves.”

18. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of financial independence and retire early.
19. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of finance, insurance and real estate, a class of businesses.

    “As Figure 2.1 demonstrates, total income acquired by the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector has been increasing since the early 1980s. While in the 1952–1980 period, the share of national income that went to the FIRE sector hovered between 12 and 14 percent, by the 2000s it had approached 20 percent.”

adj

1. (not-comparable, predicative, slang)Amazing; excellent.

   “This is fire, keep up the amazing work!”

verb

1. (transitive)To set (something, often a building) on fire.

   “["]Then I slipped up again with a box of matches, fired my heap of paper and rubbish, put the chairs and bedding thereby, led the gas to the affair, by means of an india-rubber tube, and waving a farewell to the room left it for the last time." / "You fired the house!" exclaimed Kemp. / "Fired the house. It was the only way to cover my trail – and no doubt it was insured.["]”

   “That lamp was the mummy of a woman tied to a stout stake let into the rock, and he had fired her hair.”

   “It was long a question of debate, whether the burning of the South Side ghetto was accidental, or whether it was done by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from their chiefs.”

2. (transitive)To heat as with fire, but without setting on fire, as ceramic, metal objects, etc.

   “If you fire the pottery at too high a temperature, it may crack.”

   “They fire the wood to make it easier to put a point on the end.”

   “So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.”

3. (transitive)To drive away by setting a fire.

   “Till my bad angel fire my good one out.”

4. (transitive)To terminate the employment contract of (an employee), especially for cause (such as misconduct, incompetence, or poor performance).

   “The first, obvious choice was hysterical and fantastic Blanche – had there not been her timidity, her fear of being ‘fired’[…].”

5. (broadly, transitive)To terminate a contract with a client; to drop a client.

   “Don't be hesitant to fire a client - cull out the deadwood. If a client doesn't meet the above criteria, you are better off without him. You don't do your best work for a client you'd rather not have.”

   “Maintaining a collegial attitude even when doing the more difficult business work, like firing a client, is another part. If you are struggling through the relationship, the client might be struggling as well, so firing them may be mutually beneficial, and you should try and do it on the best of terms.”

6. (transitive)To shoot (a gun, rocket/missile, or analogous device).

   “We will fire our guns at the enemy.”

   “The jet fired a salvo of rockets at the truck convoy.”

   “He fired his radar gun at passing cars.”

7. (intransitive)To shoot a gun, cannon, or similar weapon.

   “Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

   “I heard that both yesterday and today, when transports of the central government carrying our soldiers arrived at Hu-lu-tao, bandit troops on the shore fired at them.”

8. To operate a rocket engine to produce thrust.

   “The RCS thrusters fired several times to stabilize the tumbling spacecraft.”

9. (transitive)To set off an explosive in a mine.

   “`Now are you both ready?' I said, as people do when they are going to fire a mine.”

10. (transitive)To shoot; to attempt to score a goal.

    “Andrey Arshavin equalised with a superb volley into the corner before Nicklas Bendtner coolly fired Arsenal in front.”

11. (intransitive)To cause an action potential in a cell.

    “When a neuron fires, it transmits information.”

12. (transitive)To forcibly direct (something).

    “He answered the questions the reporters fired at him.”

13. (ambitransitive)To initiate an event (by means of an event handler).

    “The event handler should only fire after all web page content has finished loading.”

    “The queue fires a job whenever the thread pool is ready to handle it.”

14. (transitive)To inflame; to irritate, as the passions.

    “to fire the soul with anger, pride, or revenge”

15. (dated, intransitive)To be irritated or inflamed with passion.

    “Inexperienced girl as I was, I fired at the idea of becoming his dupe, and fancying, perhaps, that there was more in merely answering his note than it would have amounted to, I said — "That kind of thing may answer very well with button-makers, but ladies don't like it. […]”

    “Love had fired my mind.”

16. To animate; to give life or spirit to.

    “to fire the genius of a young man”

17. To feed or serve the fire of.

    “to fire a boiler”

    “Driver G. A. Rowett, of the North Eastern Region's Neville Hill shed, now joined the locomotive as pilotman, and actually took over the regulator, Fireman Wheddon continuing to fire.”

    “We left with the "Blue Train", dead on time. This time I fired all the way. […] The next day took me home again on No. E.16 with Henri Dutertre. I fired from Paris to Calais.”

18. (transitive)To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.

    “[The sun] fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.”

19. (transitive)To cauterize (a horse, or a part of its body).
20. (dated, intransitive)To catch fire; to be kindled.
21. (dated, intransitive)To work as a fireman, one who keeps the fire under a steam boiler on a steam-powered ship or train.

    “I fired on that train until August.”

22. (slang, usually)To start (an engine).
23. (intransitive)Of a horse: to race ahead with a burst of energy.

    “I'd say he struggled to get around the course. He never fired. In other years, when Buzzy Hannum rode him, he ran well enough to win, but not this time.”

intj

1. Command to shoot with firearms.

name

1. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (formerly Foundation for Individual Rights in Education): a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campuses in the United States.

   ““President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t,” the free speech advocacy group FIRE said in a statement.”