释义 |
firing, vbl. n.|ˈfaɪərɪŋ| [f. fire v. + -ing1.] 1. a. The action of setting on fire or alight.
1548Hall Chron. 18 b. Perceyving by the firyng of the beacons that the people began to assemble. 1677A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 16 The ruine of some thousand Families since the firing of London. 1817Cobbett Wks. XXXII. 150 Those meetings led..to the firing and pulling down of houses. b. The action of catching fire or becoming ignited. Obs. or rare.
1588G. Fletcher in Hakluyt's Voy. (1598) I. 480 The greatest inconuenience of their wodden building is the aptnesse for firing, which happeneth very oft. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 61 Then doe wee drawe up a leape aboute the middle of each roomstead..whearby the dainger of firing is prevented. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. iii. 95 By the eruption of..Sulphureous Vapours, and the firing thereof, these protuberances of Mountains and Hills may be made. 1750Ellis Mod. Husb., iii. i. 87 Firing, the spontaneous combustion of hay when stacked damp. c. The ignition of the fuel in a cylinder of an internal-combustion engine.
1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Terms 140 Firing, the ignition of a charge in a gas engine. 1902J. E. Hutton in A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors viii. 153 When the moment of firing arrives the striker..is caused to drop smartly. 1934A. D. Merriman Romance of Engineering vii. 108 Methods for..compressing the charge before firing were greatly improved upon when Degrand in 1858 suggested compression in the cylinder by the motor piston. 1966Jackson & Morton Reed's Gen. Engin. Knowledge for Marine Engineers ii. 41 The time interval between fuel injection and firing, called ignition delay, must not be too long. 2. The action of subjecting to the operation of fire; preparation, baking, or curing by heat.
1782Wedgwood in Phil. Trans. LXXII. 307 Their use is confined to a particular structure of furnaces, and mode of firing. 1839Stonehouse Axholme 228 This window has had four firings at a very high temperature. 1885Harper's Mag. Apr. 679 1 The glazing and firing of pottery has been a fine art. 1888Times (weekly ed.) 23 Nov. 9/4 The process called ‘firing’ [of tea]..is a kind of roasting. 3. Farriery. Cauterizing. (See fire v. 10.)
1644Prynne & Walker Fiennes' Trial 65 Who should not use cauteries or firing till the utmost extremity. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xv. 282 In 1385..firing was used to cure horses of spavin. 1891Daily News 21 Apr. 5/4 Firing, for curb especially, need not be a severe operation. 4. Applied to a disease in tobacco and in flax: see quots. and cf. fire v. 4 b.
1688J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVII. 947 What they call Firing is this: When..there has been a very wet and cold Season, and very hot Weather suddenly ensues, the Leaves [of tobacco] turn brown, and dry to dust. 1812Dubourdieu Agric. Surv. Antrim 197 Flax is subject to a disease called firing, which often attacks it when near ripe. 1888Paton & Dittmar in Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 424/2 Tobacco plants..have been subject to..a disease called ‘firing,’ caused by the long continuance of very wet or very dry weather. 5. The action of supplying with fire; the feeding and tending of a fire or furnace.
1892Labour Commission Gloss., Firing, attending to the fires and keeping them up to the required heat for carbonising coal. 6. a. The discharging a fire-arm, a mine, etc.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 69 All things being now in readinesse for the firing of the mine. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. vi. 143 The fierce Firings of the said Battalions. 1790Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 157 Night coming on, the firing on both sides ceased. 1885Manch. Exam. 3 Oct. 4/7 The train drew up..amid..the firing of guns. b. transf. in Bell-ringing. The ringing of all the bells in a peal at once.
1788W. Jones, etc. Clavis Campanalogia 4 Those clamberings and firings (as it is called) that destroy all music. 1880in Grove Dict. Mus. 7. a. concr. Material for a fire, fuel.
a1555Ridley in Contemp. Rev. (1878) XXXI. 771 To give him both meat, drink, clothing, and firing. 1591Greene Disc. Coosnage (1592) 23 Fewel or fiering, being a thing necessary. 1667Pepys Diary 24 Aug., The bells rung; but no bonfires..any where,—partly from the dearness of firing. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 212 Want of firing is the greatest inconveniency that both islands labour under. 1833H. Martineau Brooke Farm ii. 18 Their mother explained that the boys cut firing on the common. †b. A quantity of burning fuel. Obs. rare.
c1485Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 433 Here shall entere a-nother devyll..with a fyeryng. 8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) firing-chamber; (sense 3) firing-iron; (sense 5) firing-door, firing-hole, firing-machine, firing-tool, etc.; (sense 6) firing line, firing-pin, etc.; firing-bay = fire-bay; firing-glass, a table-glass with an unusually thick base; firing order, the order in which the cylinders in a motor engine operate; firing-party (see quot. 1867); firing-place, a fire-place (obs.); also, the place from which a gun is fired; firing point, (a) the temperature at which an inflammable oil is liable to spontaneous combustion; (b) in target shooting: the position from which the firing is done; firing squad, (a) = firing party; (b) a squad of soldiers detailed to shoot a condemned man; firing-step Mil., a board or ledge in a trench, upon which soldiers stand when firing.
1923Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 222 The wreck of a *firing-bay.
1892Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Firing Chamber or Lighting Chamber, the small cavity or chamber through which the charge of a gas engine is ignited.
1892Pall Mall G. 13 Dec. 6/2 A small but well-preserved hypocaust, with its *firing-door.
1905P. Bate Eng. Table Glass 72 ‘*Firing’ glasses..having a thick and massive base with which to knock on the table when applause was to be given. 1923Weekly Disp. 30 Sept. 7/4 Short Jacobite firing-glasses.
1892Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Firing Hole, the door in the side of a reverberatory furnace through which the fuel is introduced to the grate area.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., s.v., When the farrier has made his *firing-iron red hot in his forge, he applies the thinnest part to the horses skin.
1881Ld. Hartington in Daily Tel. 6 May 2, General Stewart was obliged to put every reserve man into the *firing line.
1910A. Williams Engin. Wonders of World III. 33/1 The *firing order of the cylinders of a seven-cylinder engine is 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 1, [etc.]. 1959‘Motor’ Manual (ed. 36) ii. 38 The firing order usually is 1, 5, 3, 6, 2, 4.
1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 48 The *Firing party move to the grave. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Firing-party, a detachment of soldiers, marines, or small-arm men selected to fire over the grave of an individual buried with military honours.
1890J. G. Smith in Upland Shooting 138 Carry an extra *firing-pin, as you may break one.
1715Leon Palladio's Archit. (1742) II. 99 Hearths and *Firing-places. 1879Browning Martin Relph 78 The turf marked out for the party's firing-place.
1878Ure's Dict. Arts IV. 570 Mineral oil, one or two degrees above the standard *firing-point, may, if stored in a populous locality, cause sad disaster. 1900Times 12 July, The wind has not blown straight from the firing point to the targets. 1958J. A. Barlow Elem. Rifle Shooting (ed. 5) iii. 38 The register keeper at the firing-point then shouts out the firer's name and the value of his shot.
1904Conrad Nostromo ii. i. 114 The irregular report of the *firing squad would be heard. 1917A. G. Empey Over Top 291 Firing squad. Twelve men picked to shoot a soldier who has been sentenced to death by courts-martial. 1959T. S. Eliot Elder Statesman i. 27 The ones who don't get out in time Find themselves in gaol..Or before a firing squad.
1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 254 He..leaped on the *firing step, and hurled himself over after him.
▸ firing range n. (a) = range n.1 10a; (b) the maximum distance to which a weapon will shoot (also fig.).
1868Times 10 Apr. 10/1 The officers of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Marine Artillery have met the wishes of the Local Review Committee..on all points connected with the *firing ranges. 1872Galaxy July 142/2 Clergymen do not often come within firing range. 1888Marine Engineer 1 Oct. 240/2 Six 6 in. breechloaders..all possessing great firing range. 1941P. Kendall & J. Viney Dict. Army & Navy Slang at Maggie's drawers, A red flag on the firing range indicates that the shot has missed the target completely. 1992Canad. Geogr. Jan.–Feb. 20/1 Any that surfaced within firing range were met by a volley of stones from our slingshots. 2004E. Conlon Blue Blood viii. 289 One guy failed to qualify on the firing range. |