资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Fire \Fire\ (f[imac]r), n. [OE. fir, fyr, fur AS. f[=y]r; akin
   to D. vuur, OS. & OHG. fiur, G. feuer, Icel. f[=y]ri,
   f[=u]rr, Gr. py^r, and perh. to L. purus pure, E. pure Cf.
   {Empyrean}, {Pyre}.]
   1. The evolution of light and heat in the combustion of
      bodies; combustion; state of ignition.

   Note: The form of fire exhibited in the combustion of gases
         in an ascending stream or current is called flame.
         Anciently, fire, air, earth, and water were regarded as
         the four elements of which all things are composed.

   2. Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth, or in a
      stove or a furnace.

   3. The burning of a house or town; a conflagration.

   4. Anything which destroys or affects like fire.

   5. Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth;
      consuming violence of temper.

            he had fire in his temper.            --Atterbury.

   6. Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral
      enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal.

            And bless their critic with a poet's fire. --Pope.

   7. Splendor; brilliancy; luster; hence, a star.

            Stars, hide your fires.               --Shak.

            As in a zodiac representing the heavenly fires.
                                                  --Milton.

   8. Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.

   9. The discharge of firearms; firing; as, the troops were
      exposed to a heavy fire.

   {Blue fire}, {Red fire}, {Green fire} (Pyrotech.),
      compositions of various combustible substances, as
      sulphur, niter, lampblack, etc., the flames of which are
      colored by various metallic salts, as those of antimony,
      strontium, barium, etc.

   {Fire alarm}
      (a) A signal given on the breaking out of a fire.
      (b) An apparatus for giving such an alarm.

   {Fire annihilator}, a machine, device, or preparation to be
      kept at hand for extinguishing fire by smothering it with
      some incombustible vapor or gas, as carbonic acid.

   {Fire balloon}.
      (a) A balloon raised in the air by the buoyancy of air
          heated by a fire placed in the lower part