different between gunpowder vs gunfire

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???n?pa?d?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???n?pa?d??/

Etymology 1

gun +? powder

Noun

gunpowder (countable and uncountable, plural gunpowders)

1. An explosive mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulphur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks.
2. Short for gunpowder tea.

Translations

Derived terms

• gunpowder chicken
• gunpowder empire
• gunpowderish
• gunpowderous
• Gunpowder Plot
• gunpowder tea
• Gunpowder Treason
• gunpowdery

See also

• powder burn

Etymology 2

Possibly due to its smell resembling gunpowder during the British Raj.

Noun

gunpowder (uncountable)

1. (India, informal) idli podi/milagai podi; ground-up dry spices mixed with oil and ghee and served alongside idli or dosa.

References

English

Etymology

From gun +? fire.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???nf???/

Noun

gunfire (usually uncountable, plural gunfires)

1. Shots from a gun or guns, typically creating loud report.

   Let's hide in the trees to avoid the gunfire.

   Sergeant, direct your gunfire toward that copse of trees.

2. (chiefly military) The use of gunpowder-type weapons, mainly cannon, as opposed to swords or bayonets.

   Killing people became much easier and faster once armies started using gunfire.

3. (military) The time of firing of the morning gun or the evening gun.
4. (army slang) Tea, a cup of tea, especially one served early in the morning before first parade.
   • 1937, David Jones, In Parenthesis, I:

     They had only in them the rolled mattresses, the neatly piled bed-boards and the empty tea-buckets of the orderly-men, empied of their last gun-fire.

Related terms

• gunnery
• gunpowder
• gunshot
• gunshy or gun-shy

Translations

Anagrams

• ungrief