fire
start firing a weapon
How often you will meet it
Rank 345 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 59,073 times across 175,160 chapters — 0.028% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 500 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
verb
- start firing a weapon also: open fire
- cause to go off also: discharge fire a gunfire a bullet
- bake in a kiln so as to harden fire pottery
- terminate the employment of; discharge from an office or position also: displace, give notice, can, dismiss, give the axe, send away The boss fired his secretary todayThe company terminated 25% of its workers
- go off or discharge also: discharge, go off The gun fired
- drive out or away by or as if by fire The soldiers were firedSurrender fires the cold skepticism
fire in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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So I held my peace and looked away into the fire.
The Betrayal · E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim · Chapter 1
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He thought of other things sometimes as he sat before the wood fire in his old Morris chair.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1
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Then, being apparently dead, kerosene was poured upon him, cottonseed hulls placed beneath him and set on fire.
The Red Record Tabulated Statistics · Ida B. Wells-Barnett · Chapter 1
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The vestal virgins, whose duty it was to keep the fire burning on the altar in the temple of Vesta.
Narrative and Lyric Poems (first series) · O. J. [Annotator] Stevenson · Chapter 1
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She rose obediently, and with no sign of protest began gathering an apronful of twigs and piling them for a fire.
The Heart of the Hills · John, Jr. Fox · Chapter 1