firing

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪ.əɹ.ɪŋ/ˈfaɪ.əɹ
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪ.ɚ.ɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪəɹɪŋ

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.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     No more dams I’ll make for fish;
     Nor fetch in firing
     At requiring […]

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXV, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

     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.
   • 1945 July and August, “Notes and News: "A Nice Day's Work"”, in Railway Magazine, page 235:

     One driver told him that a fireman who did not know the route might easily go "over the side" between Corby and Harringworth, unless warned beforehand of the reverse curves; he himself, in his firing days, used to try so to plan his firing that it was unnecessary to add any more coal while passing over this stretch at speed.

   • 1961 February, 'Balmore', “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 109:

     The doors are at the right level for firing, which normally is down one side of the firebox at a time, unlike our own practice, which is to fire each side of the firebox with alternate shovelfuls.

4. The discharge of a gun or other weapon.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 308:

     […] 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, chapter 43, in For Whom the Bell Tolls‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 417:

     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 due to poor work performance.
   • 2016 July 19, Matthew d’Ancona, “Theresa May’s Shock Therapy”, in The New York Times:

     Even the most seasoned analysts of British politics were struck by the brutality of Ms. May’s hirings and firings.

6. Cauterization.

firing

1. present participle and gerund of fire

• RIFing