afire
English
Etymology
13thc., from a- (“on”) + fire. Figurative usage from late 14thc.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈfaɪə(ɹ)/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Adverb
afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)
- On fire (often metaphorically).
Adjective
afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)
- On fire (often metaphorically).
Quotations
- 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 606515358, [Act I, scene ii], page 3:
- Ariell: […] all but Mariners / Plung'd in the foaming bryne, and quit the veſſell ; / Then all a fire with me the Kings ſonne Ferdinand / With haire vp-ſtaring (then like reeds, not haire) / Was the firſt man that leapt ; cride hell is empty, / And all the Diuels are heere.
- 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1857, Seventh Book, p. 275:
- […] Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God:
- 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:
- … if I were a young man I should doubtless be willing to set all Barsoom afire to win you, …
- 1931, Nacio Herb Brown and Gordon Clifford, “Paradise” (song first sung by Pola Negri and later covered by Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra):
- Her eyes afire / With one desire. / Then a heavenly kiss: / Could I resist?
- 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, Chapter 63:
- Old claw-like hands, cracked with long years of thankless toil, would hold aloft a delicate bird of wood, its wings, as thin as paper, spread for flight, its breast afire with a crimson stain.
Synonyms
- ablaze
- aflame
Derived terms
- like a house afire
- set afire
- set the world afire
Translations
literally on fire
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metaphorically on fire
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References
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “afire”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
- Arfie, Feria, Freia, faire, feria, rafie