combustible, a. and n.
(kəmˈbʌstɪb(ə)l)
[a. Fr. combustible, f. late L. combūstibil-is, f. combūst-, ppl. stem of combūrĕre; see combure.]
A. adj.
1. Capable of being burnt or consumed by fire, fit for burning, burnable.
| 1529 More Heresyes iv. Wks. 264/1 The fire can..burne al combustible thinges that it may towch. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. §19. 26 Multitudes of faggots, or other combustible fuell. 1666 Pepys Diary 2 Sept., Everything, after so long a drought, proving combustible. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 345 Stubble, and such like combustible matter. 1850 Prescott Peru II. 255 Orgonez..set fire to the combustible roof of the building. |
2. fig. Easily kindled to violence or passion; excitable; inflammable.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 17/1 This distemper was so universal, the least spark still meeting with combustible matter enough to make a flame. 1698 W. Chilcot Evil Thoughts iv. (1851) 37 The mind of man is combustible; the thoughts of his heart are mere tinder to the sparks of a lewd fancy. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) IV. lix. 416 The commons, aware of what combustible materials the army was composed. 1867 Parkman Jesuits N. Amer. xiii. (1875) 153 It was to the combustible hearts of female recluses that the torch was most busily applied. |
† 3. Burning, fiery. Obs.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 391 This last and least fire [of Etna], runne downe in a combustible flood. |
B. n. A combustible substance or matter.
| 1688 in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 344 IV. 113 Eight or nine barrels of combustibles. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. vi. 198 Pitch, tar, and other combustibles. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 80 All our ordinary combustibles—such as coal, wood, oil, etc. |
b. fig.
| 1813 Sir R. Wilson in Life II. 475 Metternich works up the combustibles in Switzerland for a spring explosion. |