firing

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The process of applying heat or fire, especially to clay, etc., to produce pottery.

   “After the pots have been glazed, they go back into the kiln for a second firing.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The fuel for a fire.

   “No more dams I’ll make for fish; Nor fetch in firing At requiring […]”

   “Downstairs there was a kitchen common to all lodgers, with free firing and a supply of cooking-pots, tea-basins, and toasting-forks.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The act of adding fuel to a fire.

   “One driver told him that a fireman who did not know the route might easily go "over the side" between Corby and Harringworth, unless warned beforehand of the reverse curves; he himself, in his firing days, used to try so to plan his firing that it was unnecessary to add any more coal while passing over this stretch at speed.”

   “The doors are at the right level for firing, which normally is down one side of the firebox at a time, unlike our own practice, which is to fire each side of the firebox with alternate shovelfuls.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The discharge of a gun or other weapon.

   “[…] they fir’d several Times, making other Signals for the Boat. At last, when all their Signals and Firings prov’d fruitless, and they found the Boat did not stir, we saw them by the Help of my Glasses, hoist another Boat out, and row towards the Shore […]”

   “He heard the firing and as he walked he felt it in the pit of his stomach as though it echoed on his own diaphragm.”

5. (countable, uncountable)The dismissal of someone from a job due to poor work performance.

   “Even the most seasoned analysts of British politics were struck by the brutality of Ms. May’s hirings and firings.”

6. (countable, uncountable)Cauterization.

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of fire