firing

firing, vbl. n.
  (ˈfaɪərɪŋ)
  [f. fire v. + -ing¹.]
  1. a. The action of setting on fire or alight.

1548 Hall Chron. 18 b. Perceyving by the firyng of the beacons that the people began to assemble. 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 16 The ruine of some thousand Families since the firing of London. 1817 Cobbett 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.

1588 G. Fletcher in Hakluyt's Voy. (1598) I. 480 The greatest inconuenience of their wodden building is the aptnesse for firing, which happeneth very oft. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 61 Then doe wee drawe up a leape aboute the middle of each roomstead..whearby the dainger of firing is prevented. 1677 Hale 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. 1750 Ellis 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.

1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Terms 140 Firing, the ignition of a charge in a gas engine. 1902 J. E. Hutton in A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors viii. 153 When the moment of firing arrives the striker..is caused to drop smartly. 1934 A. 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. 1966 Jackson & 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.

1782 Wedgwood in Phil. Trans. LXXII. 307 Their use is confined to a particular structure of furnaces, and mode of firing. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 228 This window has had four firings at a very high temperature. 1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 679 1 The glazing and firing of pottery has been a fine art. 1888 Times (weekly ed.) 23 Nov. 9/4 The process called ‘firing’ [of tea]..is a kind of roasting.

  3. Farriery. Cauterizing. (See fire v. 10.)

1644 Prynne & Walker Fiennes' Trial 65 Who should not use cauteries or firing till the utmost extremity. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xv. 282 In 1385..firing was used to cure horses of spavin. 1891 Daily 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.

1688 J. 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. 1812 Dubourdieu Agric. Surv. Antrim 197 Flax is subject to a disease called firing, which often attacks it when near ripe. 1888 Paton & 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.

1892 Labour 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.

1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 69 All things being now in readinesse for the firing of the mine. 1684 Scanderbeg Rediv. vi. 143 The fierce Firings of the said Battalions. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 157 Night coming on, the firing on both sides ceased. 1885 Manch. 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.

1788 W. Jones, etc. Clavis Campanalogia 4 Those clamberings and firings (as it is called) that destroy all music. 1880 in Grove Dict. Mus.

  7. a. concr. Material for a fire, fuel.

a 1555 Ridley in Contemp. Rev. (1878) XXXI. 771 To give him both meat, drink, clothing, and firing. 1591 Greene Disc. Coosnage (1592) 23 Fewel or fiering, being a thing necessary. 1667 Pepys Diary 24 Aug., The bells rung; but no bonfires..any where,—partly from the dearness of firing. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 212 Want of firing is the greatest inconveniency that both islands labour under. 1833 H. Martineau Brooke Farm ii. 18 Their mother explained that the boys cut firing on the common.

  † b. A quantity of burning fuel. Obs. rare.

c 1485 Digby 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.

1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 222 The wreck of a *firing-bay.

1892 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Firing Chamber or Lighting Chamber, the small cavity or chamber through which the charge of a gas engine is ignited.

1892 Pall Mall G. 13 Dec. 6/2 A small but well-preserved hypocaust, with its *firing-door.

1905 P. 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. 1923 Weekly Disp. 30 Sept. 7/4 Short Jacobite firing-glasses.

1892 Lockwood'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.

1753 Chambers 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.

1881 Ld. Hartington in Daily Tel. 6 May 2, General Stewart was obliged to put every reserve man into the *firing line.

1910 A. 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.

1859 F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 48 The *Firing party move to the grave. 1867 Smyth 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.

1890 J. G. Smith in Upland Shooting 138 Carry an extra *firing-pin, as you may break one.

1715 Leon Palladio's Archit. (1742) II. 99 Hearths and *Firing-places. 1879 Browning Martin Relph 78 The turf marked out for the party's firing-place.

1878 Ure'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. 1900 Times 12 July, The wind has not blown straight from the firing point to the targets. 1958 J. 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.

1904 Conrad Nostromo ii. i. 114 The irregular report of the *firing squad would be heard. 1917 A. G. Empey Over Top 291 Firing squad. Twelve men picked to shoot a soldier who has been sentenced to death by courts-martial. 1959 T. 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.

  
  
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   ▸ firing range n. (a) = range n.¹ 10a; (b) the maximum distance to which a weapon will shoot (also fig.).

1868 Times 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. 1872 Galaxy July 142/2 Clergymen do not often come within firing range. 1888 Marine Engineer 1 Oct. 240/2 Six 6 in. breechloaders..all possessing great firing range. 1941 P. 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. 1992 Canad. Geogr. Jan.–Feb. 20/1 Any that surfaced within firing range were met by a volley of stones from our slingshots. 2004 E. Conlon Blue Blood viii. 289 One guy failed to qualify on the firing range.

Oxford English Dictionary