firing

English

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfaɪ.ɚ.ɪŋ/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪəɹɪŋ

Noun

firing (countable and uncountable, plural firings)

  1. (ceramics) 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. The fuel for a fire.
  3. The act of adding fuel to a fire.
    • 1945 July and August, “Notes and News: "A Nice Day's Work"”, in Railway Magazine, page 235:
      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.
    • 1961 February, 'Balmore', “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 109:
      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. The discharge of a gun or other weapon.

#*: 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 []

    • 1940, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 43, p. 417,
      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.
  1. The dismissal of someone from a job.
  2. Cauterization.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

firing

  1. present participle of fire

Anagrams

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