firing

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪɹɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (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.
   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

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

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 25, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], OCLC 2603818:

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

3. The act of adding fuel to a fire.
   • 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.
   • 1719 April 25​, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, OCLC 838630407, page 308:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1940, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 43, p. 417,^[1]

     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. The dismissal of someone from a job.
   • 2016, Matthew d’Ancona, “Theresa May’s Shock Therapy,” The New York Times, 19 July, 2016,^[2]

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

6. Cauterization.

Derived terms

• oil firing
• overfiring
• underfiring

Translations

process of applying heat or fire

• Bulgarian: изпичане n (izpičane)

• Finnish: polttaminen (fi), poltto (fi)
• German: Brennen n, Brennung f

fuel

• Bulgarian: топливо (bg) n (toplivo)

• German: Brennstoff (de) m
• Swedish: bränsle (sv) n

discharge

• Bulgarian: стрелба (bg) f (strelba)
• Dutch: geschiet (nl) n
• Esperanto: pafado
• Finnish: ampuminen (fi), laukaisu (fi)

• German: Schussabgabe f
• Ido: pafado (io)
• Karachay-Balkar: атыш (atış)
• Swedish: avfyrning n

dismissal

• Bulgarian: уволнение (bg) n (uvolnenie)
• Catalan: comiat (ca) m
• Finnish: irtisanominen (fi), erottaminen (fi)

• French: renvoi (fr)
• German: Entlassung (de) f
• Romanian: concediere (ro) f
• Swedish: avsked (sv) n

Verb

firing

1. present participle of fire

Anagrams

• RIFing