<B>firearm, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a gun, pistol, or similar weapon to shoot with. It is usually one that can be carried and used by a single person. <BR> <I>Ex. The law imposes a tax on the sale or transfer of firearms.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="firearrow">
<B>fire arrow,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an arrow with combustible matter attached, formerly used, by shooting from a handbow or an engine, for incendiary purposes. </DL>
<A NAME="fireball">
<B>fireball, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the great, luminous cloud of hot gases, water vapor, and dust produced by a nuclear explosion. <DD><B> 2. </B>anything that looks like a ball of fire, such as a ball of lightning. <DD><B> 3. </B>a large, brilliant meteor. <DD><B> 4. </B>a ball filled with a preparation to cause burning or an explosion, formerly thrown from a catapult or similar device. <DD><B> 5. </B>a very fast pitch to the batter in baseball. <DD><B> 6. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) a person who possesses great energy and enthusiasm. </DL>
<A NAME="fireballer">
<B>fireballer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Baseball.) a pitcher who relies principally on speed. </DL>
<A NAME="fireballing">
<B>fireballing, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(of a baseball pitcher) throwing very fast pitches. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) characterized by great energy and enthusiasm. <BR> <I>Ex. his fireballing years, a fireballing politician.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fireballoon">
<B>fire balloon,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a balloon made buoyant by air heated by a fire attached beneath an opening at the bottom. <DD><B> 2. </B>a balloon sent up at night with fireworks that ignite at a regulated height. </DL>
<A NAME="firebase">
<B>firebase, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a military base established especially to deliver heavy gunfire against an enemy. </DL>
<A NAME="firebay">
<B>fire bay,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) one of the sections of a fire trench, manned usually by a single rifle squad. </DL>
<A NAME="firebean">
<B>fire bean,</B> <B>=scarlet runner.</B></DL>
<A NAME="firebeetle">
<B>fire beetle,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> any one of certain elaterid beetles, especially a genus of tropical America, capable of producing light; cucuyo. </DL>
<A NAME="firebell">
<B>fire bell,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a loud bell for sounding a fire alarm. </DL>
<A NAME="firebelt">
<B>firebelt, </B>noun. <B>=firebreak.</B></DL>
<A NAME="firebill">
<B>fire bill,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a bill showing the proper distribution of the officers and crew on board a vessel in case of a fire alarm. </DL>
<A NAME="firebird">
<B>firebird, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of certain small birds having brilliant plumage, such as the Baltimore oriole or scarlet tanager. </DL>
<B>fire blight,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a disease of apple and pear trees, caused by a bacterium that attacks blossoms, leaves, and twigs. </DL>
<A NAME="fireboard">
<B>fireboard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a board used to close a fireplace. </DL>
<A NAME="fireboat">
<B>fireboat, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a vessel equipped with apparatus for putting out fires on a dock, ship, or land bordering a waterway. </DL>
<A NAME="firebomb">
<B>fire bomb,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an incendiary bomb, such as one containing napalm. </DL>
<A NAME="firebomb">
<B>firebomb, </B>transitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to attack with a fire bomb or bombs. <BR> <I>Ex. In the meantime, attempts to firebomb the floating oil and burn it up were proving as unsuccessful as local efforts to dissolve it with detergents (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fireboss">
<B>fire boss,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a mine official who examines the mine for explosive gas and inspects safety lamps taken into the mine. </DL>
<A NAME="firebox">
<B>firebox, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the grate and surrounding walls of firebrick, etc., in which the fuel is burned in a furnace. <DD><B> 2. </B>the furnace of a steam boiler, especially that of a steam locomotive. <DD><B> 3. </B>a box with a device for giving the alarm in case of fire. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Archaic.) a tinderbox. </DL>
<A NAME="firebrand">
<B>firebrand, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a piece of burning wood or other material. <BR> <I>Ex. I took up a great firebrand and in I rushed ... with the stick flaming in my hand (Daniel Defoe).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a person who arouses angry feelings in others; one who stirs up unrest, strife, rebellion, etc. (SYN) agitator, incendiary. </DL>
<A NAME="firebrat">
<B>firebrat, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a light-brown, wingless insect closely related to the silverfish, which lives around furnaces and steam pipes, emerging to eat starchy substances, especially in books, clothing, and wallpaper paste. </DL>
<A NAME="firebreak">
<B>firebreak, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a strip of land in a forest or on a prairie that has been cleared of trees or on which the sod has been turned over as a means of checking the progress of a fire. </DL>
<A NAME="firebrick">
<B>firebrick, </B>noun, pl. <B>-bricks</B> or (collectively) <B>-brick.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a brick made of fire clay that can stand great heat without fusion, used to line furnaces, kilns, and fireplaces; refractory brick. </DL>
<A NAME="firebrigade">
<B>fire brigade,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a group of people organized to put out fires. <DD><B> 2. </B>(British.) a body of firemen; fire department. <DD><B> 3. </B>a highly mobile military unit organized to handle emergency outbreaks or attacks. <BR> <I>Ex. These units will serve as "fire brigades," taking advantage of their mobility to rush to any location where it appears that the [Army] is in trouble (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="firebug">
<B>firebug, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Informal.) a person who purposely sets houses or property on fire; arsonist. (SYN) pyromaniac, incendiary. </DL>
<A NAME="firechief">
<B>fire chief,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the official in charge of a fire department. </DL>
<A NAME="fireclay">
<B>fire clay,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a clay capable of resisting high temperatures, used for making crucibles, firebricks, etc. </DL>
<A NAME="firecompany">
<B>fire company,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a group of men organized to put out fires; fire brigade. <DD><B> 2. </B>a fire-insurance company. </DL>
<A NAME="firecontrol">
<B>fire control,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> control of the aim, range, time, and volume of fire of projectiles or rockets, now commonly by automatic tracking and computing devices. <BR> <I>Ex. The jet plane was equipped with a radar system for fire control.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="firecracker">
<B>firecracker, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a paper roll containing gunpowder and a fuse. Firecrackers explode with a loud noise. </DL>
<A NAME="firecrackerflower">
<B>firecracker flower,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a perennial plant of the amaryllis family that grows in California, has a slender stalk, low, narrow leaves that look like blades of grass, and scarlet, tube-shaped flowers tipped with green. </DL>
<B>fire-crested wren,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a kinglet of central Europe and parts of the Mediterranean, having a bright gold crown and a black stripe across the eye; firecrest. </DL>
<A NAME="firecross">
<B>fire cross,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a wooden cross of light wood set on fire at one end and dipped in the blood of an animal at the other, used anciently in Scotland as a signal sent from place to place to summon men to arms; fiery cross. </DL>
<A NAME="firecure">
<B>fire-cure, </B>transitive verb, <B>-cured,</B> <B>-curing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to dry and thus to prepare (tobacco) for use by hanging over open fires. Fire-cured tobacco is usually dark in color and has a noticeably smoky flavor. </DL>
<A NAME="firedamp">
<B>firedamp, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a gas formed in coal mines that is dangerously explosive when mixed in certain proportions with air. It consists chiefly of methane. <DD><B> 2. </B>the explosive mixture thus formed. </DL>
<A NAME="firedepartment">
<B>fire department,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a city, town, or community department organized and equipped to put out and prevent fires. <DD><B> 2. </B>the body of men in such a department or other organization. In some fire departments they are municipal employees; in others they are unpaid volunteers. </DL>
<A NAME="firedog">
<B>firedog, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an andiron, often one without the ornamental shaft in front. </DL>
<A NAME="firedrake">
<B>firedrake, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a fiery dragon in Germanic mythology. </DL>
<A NAME="firedrill">
<B>fire drill,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a drill for firemen, a ship or airplane crew, pupils in a school, or others in a building, to train them for duties or for orderly exit in case of fire. </DL>
<A NAME="firedup">
<B>fired-up, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) enthusiastic. <BR> <I>Ex. a fired-up football team.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fireeater">
<B>fire-eater, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an entertainer who eats or pretends to eat fire. <BR> <I>Ex. Richardson, the famous fire-eater, devoured ... glowing coals (John Evelyn).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) a person who is too ready to fight or quarrel. <BR> <I>Ex. The newcomer proved to be, ... as he pleasantly acknowledged, a Southern Fire-Eater (Hawthorne).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="fireeating">
<B>fire-eating, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with a fire-eater. </DL>
<A NAME="fireengine">
<B>fire engine,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a truck or other vehicle that carries equipment for putting out fires and making rescues, especially one that carries ladders and pumps and hose for spraying water and chemicals; fire truck. </DL>
<A NAME="fireescape">
<B>fire escape,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a stairway or series of steel ladders in or on a building, used when a building is on fire. </DL>
<A NAME="fireextinguisher">
<B>fire extinguisher,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a container filled with water or chemicals to spray on fire to put it out. </DL>
<A NAME="firefang">
<B>firefang, </B>intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD> to deteriorate by oxidation that results from extreme heat, as manure, barley, and cheese do. </DL>
<A NAME="firefight">
<B>firefight, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a military engagement between opponents who shoot at each other without either opponent making a direct assault on the other. </DL>
<A NAME="firefighter">
<B>fire fighter,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person employed to put out fires, especially on forest lands. </DL>
<A NAME="firefighting">
<B>fire fighting,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of putting out a fire. <DD><B> 2. </B>the occupation of a fire fighter. adj. <B>fire-fighting.</B> </DL>
