Fire n.
 1. The evolution of light and heat in the combustion of bodies; combustion; state of ignition.
 Note: ☞ The form of fire exhibited in the combustion of gases in an ascending stream or current is called flame. Anciently, fire, air, earth, and water were regarded as the four elements of which all things are composed.
 2. Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth, or in a stove or a furnace.
 3. The burning of a house or town; a conflagration.
 4. Anything which destroys or affects like fire.
 5. Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth; consuming violence of temper.
    he had fire in his temper.   --Atterbury.
 6. Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal.
    And bless their critic with a poet's fire.   --Pope.
 7. Splendor; brilliancy; luster; hence, a star.
    Stars, hide your fires.   --Shak.
 As in a zodiac
 representing the heavenly fires.   --Milton.
 8. Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.
 9. The discharge of firearms; firing; as, the troops were exposed to a heavy fire.
 Blue fire, Red fire, Green fire Pyrotech., compositions of various combustible substances, as sulphur, niter, lampblack, etc., the flames of which are colored by various metallic salts, as those of antimony, strontium, barium, etc.
 Fire alarm (a) A signal given on the breaking out of a fire. (b) An apparatus for giving such an alarm.
 Fire annihilator, a machine, device, or preparation to be kept at hand for extinguishing fire by smothering it with some incombustible vapor or gas, as carbonic acid.
 Fire balloon. (a) A balloon raised in the air by the buoyancy of air heated by a fire placed in the lower part. (b) A balloon sent up at night with fireworks which ignite at a regulated height. --Simmonds.
 Fire bar, a grate bar.
 Fire basket, a portable grate; a cresset. --Knight.
 Fire beetle. Zool. See in the Vocabulary.
 Fire blast, a disease of plants which causes them to appear as if burnt by fire.
 Fire box, the chamber of a furnace, steam boiler, etc., for the fire.
 Fire brick, a refractory brick, capable of sustaining intense heat without fusion, usually made of fire clay or of siliceous material, with some cementing substance, and used for lining fire boxes, etc.
 Fire brigade, an organized body of men for extinguished fires.
 Fire bucket. See under Bucket.
 Fire bug, an incendiary; one who, from malice or through mania, persistently sets fire to property; a pyromaniac. [U.S.]
 Fire clay. See under Clay.
 Fire company, a company of men managing an engine in extinguishing fires.
 Fire cross. See Fiery cross. [Obs.] --Milton.
 Fire damp. See under Damp.
 Fire dog. See Firedog, in the Vocabulary.
 Fire drill. (a) A series of evolutions performed by fireman for practice. (b) An apparatus for producing fire by friction, by rapidly twirling a wooden pin in a wooden socket; -- used by the Hindoos during all historic time, and by many savage peoples.
 Fire eater. (a) A juggler who pretends to eat fire. (b) A quarrelsome person who seeks affrays; a hotspur. [Colloq.]
 Fire engine, a portable forcing pump, usually on wheels, for throwing water to extinguish fire.
 Fire escape, a contrivance for facilitating escape from burning buildings.
 Fire gilding Fine Arts, a mode of gilding with an amalgam of gold and quicksilver, the latter metal being driven off afterward by heat.
 Fire gilt Fine Arts, gold laid on by the process of fire gilding.
 Fire insurance, the act or system of insuring against fire; also, a contract by which an insurance company undertakes, in consideration of the payment of a premium or small percentage -- usually made periodically -- to indemnify an owner of property from loss by fire during a specified period.
 Fire irons, utensils for a fireplace or grate, as tongs, poker, and shovel.
 Fire main, a pipe for water, to be used in putting out fire.
 Fire master (Mil), an artillery officer who formerly supervised the composition of fireworks.
 Fire office, an office at which to effect insurance against fire.
 Fire opal, a variety of opal giving firelike reflections.
 Fire ordeal, an ancient mode of trial, in which the test was the ability of the accused to handle or tread upon red-hot irons. --Abbot.
 Fire pan, a pan for holding or conveying fire, especially the receptacle for the priming of a gun.
 Fire plug, a plug or hydrant for drawing water from the main pipes in a street, building, etc., for extinguishing fires.
 Fire policy, the writing or instrument expressing the contract of insurance against loss by fire.
 Fire pot. (a) Mil. A small earthen pot filled with combustibles, formerly used as a missile in war. (b) The cast iron vessel which holds the fuel or fire in a furnace. (c) A crucible. (d) A solderer's furnace.
 Fire raft, a raft laden with combustibles, used for setting fire to an enemy's ships.
 Fire roll, a peculiar beat of the drum to summon men to their quarters in case of fire.
 Fire setting Mining, the process of softening or cracking the working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation, by exposing it to the action of fire; -- now generally superseded by the use of explosives. --Raymond.
 Fire ship, a vessel filled with combustibles, for setting fire to an enemy's ships.
 Fire shovel, a shovel for taking up coals of fire.
 Fire stink, the stench from decomposing iron pyrites, caused by the formation of hydrogen sulfide. --Raymond.
 Fire surface, the surfaces of a steam boiler which are exposed to the direct heat of the fuel and the products of combustion; heating surface.
 Fire swab, a swab saturated with water, for cooling a gun in action and clearing away particles of powder, etc. --Farrow.
 Fire teaser, in England, the fireman of a steam emgine.
 Fire water, a strong alcoholic beverage; -- so called by the American Indians.
 Fire worship, the worship of fire, which prevails chiefly in Persia, among the followers of Zoroaster, called Chebers, or Guebers, and among the Parsees of India.
 Greek fire. See under Greek.
 On fire, burning; hence, ardent; passionate; eager; zealous.
 Running fire, the rapid discharge of firearms in succession by a line of troops.
 St. Anthony's fire, erysipelas; -- an eruptive fever which St. Anthony was supposed to cure miraculously. --Hoblyn.
 St. Elmo's fire. See under Saint Elmo.
 To set on fire, to inflame; to kindle.
 To take fire, to begin to burn; to fly into a passion.


 Green a. [Compar. Greener superl. Greenest.]
 1. Having the color of grass when fresh and growing; resembling that color of the solar spectrum which is between the yellow and the blue; verdant; emerald.
 2. Having a sickly color; wan.
    To look so green and pale.   --Shak.
 3. Full of life and vigor; fresh and vigorous; new; recent; as, a green manhood; a green wound.
    As valid against such an old and beneficent government as against . . . the greenest usurpation.   --Burke.
 4. Not ripe; immature; not fully grown or ripened; as, green fruit, corn, vegetables, etc.
 5. Not roasted; half raw. [R.]
    We say the meat is green when half roasted.   --L. Watts.
 6. Immature in age, judgment, or experience; inexperienced; young; raw; not trained; awkward; as, green in years or judgment.
    I might be angry with the officious zeal which supposes that its green conceptions can instruct my gray hairs.   --Sir W. Scott.
 7. Not seasoned; not dry; containing its natural juices; as, green wood, timber, etc.
 Green brier Bot., a thorny climbing shrub (Emilaz rotundifolia) having a yellowish green stem and thick leaves, with small clusters of flowers, common in the United States; -- called also cat brier.
 Green con Zool., the pollock.
 Green crab Zool., an edible, shore crab (Carcinus menas) of Europe and America; -- in New England locally named joe-rocker.
 Green crop, a crop used for food while in a growing or unripe state, as distingushed from a grain crop, root crop, etc.
 Green diallage. Min. (a) Diallage, a variety of pyroxene. (b) Smaragdite.
 Green dragon Bot., a North American herbaceous plant (Arisæma Dracontium), resembling the Indian turnip; -- called also dragon root.
 Green earth Min., a variety of glauconite, found in cavities in amygdaloid and other eruptive rock, and used as a pigment by artists; -- called also mountain green.
 Green ebony. (a) A south American tree (Jacaranda ovalifolia), having a greenish wood, used for rulers, turned and inlaid work, and in dyeing. (b) The West Indian green ebony. See Ebony.
 Green fire (Pyrotech.), a composition which burns with a green flame. It consists of sulphur and potassium chlorate, with some salt of barium (usually the nitrate), to which the color of the flame is due.
 Green fly Zool., any green species of plant lice or aphids, esp. those that infest greenhouse plants.
 Green gage, Bot. See Greengage, in the Vocabulary.
 Green gland Zool., one of a pair of large green glands in Crustacea, supposed to serve as kidneys. They have their outlets at the bases of the larger antennæ.
 Green hand, a novice. [Colloq.]
 Green heart Bot., the wood of a lauraceous tree found in the West Indies and in South America, used for shipbuilding or turnery. The green heart of Jamaica and Guiana is the Nectandra Rodiœi, that of Martinique is the Colubrina ferruginosa.
 Green iron ore  (Min.) dufrenite.
 Green laver Bot., an edible seaweed  (Ulva latissima); -- called also green sloke.
 Green lead ore (Min.), pyromorphite.
 Green linnet Zool., the greenfinch.
 Green looper Zool., the cankerworm.
 Green marble (Min.), serpentine.
 Green mineral, a carbonate of copper, used as a pigment. See Greengill.
 Green monkey Zool. a West African long-tailed monkey (Cercopithecus callitrichus), very commonly tamed, and trained to perform tricks. It was introduced into the West Indies early in the last century, and has become very abundant there.
 Green salt of Magnus (Old Chem.), a dark green crystalline salt, consisting of ammonia united with certain chlorides of platinum.
 Green sand (Founding)  molding sand used for a mold while slightly damp, and not dried before the cast is made.
 Green sea (Naut.), a wave that breaks in a solid mass on a vessel's deck.
 Green sickness Med., chlorosis.
 Green snake Zool., one of two harmless American snakes (Cyclophis vernalis, and C. æstivus). They are bright green in color.
 Green turtle Zool., an edible marine turtle. See Turtle.
 Green vitriol. (a) Chem. Sulphate of iron; a light green crystalline substance, very extensively used in the preparation of inks, dyes, mordants, etc. (b) Min. Same as copperas, melanterite and sulphate of iron.
 Green ware, articles of pottery molded and shaped, but not yet baked.
 Green woodpecker Zool., a common European woodpecker (Picus viridis); -- called also yaffle.