fire drill

fire drill

English

A fire drill (fire starting device).

Pronunciation

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Noun

fire drill (plural fire drills)

1. An organized practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.

   Our teacher said that will have a fire drill today.

2. (idiomatic, US) Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.

   Since they've changed the standards again, our previous efforts now just amount to a fire drill.

3. A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.
   • 1999, Paul Douglas Campbell, Survival Skills of Native California, →ISBN, page 4:

     There is no machine on earth so potent, yet so simple and elegant, as the two sticks of the Native American fire drill;

Synonyms

• (evacuation practice for a fire): fire practice
• (pointless activity): Chinese fire drill
• (fire starting tool): bow drill, fire stick, pump drill

Translations

practice to prepare for evacuation in the event of a fire

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Catalan: simulacre d'incendi Chinese: Mandarin: 消防演習／消防演习 (xiāofáng yǎnxí) Finnish: paloharjoitus French: exercice d'incendie (fr) m German: Brandschutzübung f, Probealarm (de) m, Feuerübung f Irish: druil dhóiteáin f, cleachtadh dóiteáin m Italian: esercitazione antincendio f Japanese: 避難訓練 (hinan kunren), 消防訓練 (syōbō kunren) Navajo: please add this translation if you can Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: simulacro de incendio m, simulacro (es) m Swedish: brandövning (sv) c

pointless activity

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: puuhastelu (fi) German: Luftnummer (de) f (coll.), verlorene Liebesmüh f Italian: please add this translation if you can Navajo: please add this translation if you can Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: please add this translation if you can Swedish: tidsslöseri n

rod which is rotated on a flat surface

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: please add this translation if you can Egyptian: (ḏꜣ) Finnish: tulipora French: please add this translation if you can German: Fiedelbohrer m, Geigenbohrer m, Feuerbohrer (de) m, Bogendrille f Greek: Ancient: ἀρίς f (arís) Italian: please add this translation if you can Navajo: woolkʼą́ą́h Polish: łuk ogniowy m Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: please add this translation if you can Swedish: eldborr c

See also

• bow drill
• hand drill
• pump drill
• strap drill

References

• “fire-drill” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “fire-drill”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “fire drill”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.