ˈdeath-fire
1. A luminous appearance supposed to be seen over a dead body, etc.: = dead-light 3.
| 1796 Coleridge Ode Departing Year, Mighty armies of the dead, Dance like death-fires round her tomb. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam xi. xii, From the choked well, whence a bright death-fire sprung. |
2. A fire for burning a person to death.
| 1857 T. Flanagan Hist. R.C. Church Eng. II. 81 A large wooden statue of the blessed Virgin was brought..to make the death-fire. |