different between flammable vs firebreak

English

Etymology

Back-formation from inflammable, which is used to avoid confusion with non-flammable, as the prefix in- is often used to mean "un-; non-", although it was originally meant in a sense closely related to en-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?flæm?b?l/

Adjective

flammable (comparative more flammable, superlative most flammable)

1. Capable of burning, especially a liquid.
2. Easily set on fire.
3. Subject to easy ignition and rapid flaming combustion.

Synonyms

• inflammable (in the original sense)

Antonyms

• inflammable (in the newer sense)
• non-flammable, nonflammable
• noninflammable

Translations

Noun

flammable (plural flammables)

1. Any flammable substance.

English

Alternative forms

• fire break

Etymology

fire +? break

Noun

firebreak (plural firebreaks)

1. An area cleared of all flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading across it.

   The firefighters used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak in the forest to try to contain the forest fire.

2. (figuratively) Any separating barrier.
   • 1984, Dietrich Schroeer, Science, Technology and the Nuclear Arms Race (page 293)

     That policy could consist of a statement that the declaring nation would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would strengthen the firebreak between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons.

   • 2012, Daniel Levine, Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique (page 112)

     First, it serves to demonstrate that the practice of sustainable critique […] need not be impossibly philosophically rarefied […] Second, it serves as a firebreak against the unrelieved negativity that, it is sometimes charged, follows from Adorno's practices of reflexivity.

Translations

See also

• firebreak on Wikipedia.Wikipedia