different between kindling vs firing

English

Etymology

kindle +? -ing

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?ndl??/

Noun

kindling (countable and uncountable, plural kindlings)

1. Small pieces of wood and twigs used to start a fire.

   • When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped?; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons.

2. The act by which something is kindled.
   • December 14, 1784, Hester Rogers, letter to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher

     The kindlings of love which had been felt before, now became a flame in every believing soul; and when fallen on our knees, the power of God descended of a truth […]

Usage notes

Kindling refers to the second stage of building a fire: tinder is used to light kindling, which then lights the main fire.

Coordinate terms

• tinder

Translations

Verb

kindling

1. present participle of kindle

   Despite the damp wood, he had no trouble kindling a fire.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fa????/
• Rhymes: -a?????

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.
   • c. 1611,, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2,^[1]

     No more dams I’ll make for fish;

     Nor fetch in firing

     At requiring […]

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1961, Chapter 25, p. 133,^[2]

     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.
4. The discharge of a gun or other weapon.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 308,^[3]

     […] 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,^[4]

     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,^[5]

     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

Translations

Verb

firing

1. present participle of fire

Anagrams

• RIFing