What's the difference between fire and firebrand?

Fire


Definition:

  • (n.) The evolution of light and heat in the combustion of bodies; combustion; state of ignition.
  • (n.) Fuel in a state of combustion, as on a hearth, or in a stove or a furnace.
  • (n.) The burning of a house or town; a conflagration.
  • (n.) Anything which destroys or affects like fire.
  • (n.) Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth; consuming violence of temper.
  • (n.) Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal.
  • (n.) Splendor; brilliancy; luster; hence, a star.
  • (n.) Torture by burning; severe trial or affliction.
  • (n.) The discharge of firearms; firing; as, the troops were exposed to a heavy fire.
  • (v. t.) To set on fire; to kindle; as, to fire a house or chimney; to fire a pile.
  • (v. t.) To subject to intense heat; to bake; to burn in a kiln; as, to fire pottery.
  • (v. t.) To inflame; to irritate, as the passions; as, to fire the soul with anger, pride, or revenge.
  • (v. t.) To animate; to give life or spirit to; as, to fire the genius of a young man.
  • (v. t.) To feed or serve the fire of; as, to fire a boiler.
  • (v. t.) To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.
  • (v. t.) To cause to explode; as, to fire a torpedo; to disharge; as, to fire a musket or cannon; to fire cannon balls, rockets, etc.
  • (v. t.) To drive by fire.
  • (v. t.) To cauterize.
  • (v. i.) To take fire; to be kindled; to kindle.
  • (v. i.) To be irritated or inflamed with passion.
  • (v. i.) To discharge artillery or firearms; as, they fired on the town.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) These channels may, at least in some cases, be responsible for the generation of pacemaker depolarizations, thereby regulating firing behaviour.
  • (2) On Friday night, in a stadium built in an area once deemed an urban wasteland, the flame that has journeyed from Athens to every corner of these islands will light the fire that launches the London Olympics of 2012.
  • (3) Microionophoretically applied excitatory amino acids induced firing of extracellularly recorded single units in a tissue slice preparation of the mouse cochlear nucleus, and the similarly applied antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (2APV) was demonstrated to be a selective N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist.
  • (4) However, the firing of 5-HT neurons appears to relate to the state of vigilance of the animal.
  • (5) A tiny studio flat that has become a symbol of London's soaring property prices is to be investigated by planning, environmental health and fire safety authorities after the Guardian revealed details of its shoebox-like proportions.
  • (6) Core biopsy with computed tomography (CT) or ultrasound (US) guidance may be such an alternative, particularly when a spring-loaded firing device is used.
  • (7) Both Ken Whisenhunt and Lovie Smith were fired as head coaches after the 2012 season.
  • (8) It was an artwork that fired the imaginations of 2 million visitors who played with, were provoked by and plunged themselves into the curious atmosphere of The Weather Project , with its swirling mist and gigantic mirrors that covered the hall's ceiling.
  • (9) The biggest single source of air pollution is coal-fired power stations and China, with its large population and heavy reliance on coal power, provides $2.3tn of the annual subsidies.
  • (10) Photograph: AP Reasons for wavering • State relies on coal-fired electricity • Poor prospects for wind power • Conservative Democrat • Represents conservative district in conservative state and was elected on narrow margins Campaign support from fossil fuel interests in 2008 • $93,743 G K Butterfield (North Carolina) GK Butterfield, North Carolina.
  • (11) The fire at Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh building was reported at about 12.30pm.
  • (12) He gets Lyme disease , he dates indie girls and strippers; he lives in disused warehouses and crappy flats with weirded-out flatmates who want to set him on fire and buy the petrol to do so.
  • (13) The effects of clozapine on the spontaneous firing rate of noradrenergic (NE, locus coeruleus), dopaminergic (DA, zona compacta, ventral tegmental area) and non-dopaminergic (zona reticulata) neurons was studied in chloral hydrate anesthetized rats.
  • (14) "Monasteries and convents face greater risks than other buildings in terms of fire safety," the article said, adding that many are built with flammable materials and located far away from professional fire brigades.
  • (15) Seconds later the camera turns away as what sounds like at least 15 gunshots are fired amid bystanders’ screams.
  • (16) The distinguishing feature of this study is the simultaneous measurement of sympathetic firing and norepinephrine spillover in the same organ, the kidney, under conditions of intact sympathetic impulse traffic.
  • (17) Without a renewables target, Energy Department officials said, it would be possible for a large proportion of this shortfall to be met by gas-fired power generation.
  • (18) Measurements were made of the width of the marginal gap for three sites at each of four stages: (1) after the shoulder firing, (2) after the body-incisal firing, (3) after the glaze firing, and (4) after a correction firing.
  • (19) Part of his initial lump sum will be donated to a fund to replace a hall destroyed by fire in an arson attack four years ago at St Luke’s Church in Newton Poppleford.
  • (20) Starting from the observation that the part above 6 Hz of the power spectrum of force tremor during isometric contractions can be related to the unfused twitches of motor units firing asynchronously, an attempt was made to study the usefulness of force tremor spectral analysis as a global descriptor of motoneurone pool activity.

Firebrand


Definition:

  • (n.) A piece of burning wood.
  • (n.) One who inflames factions, or causes contention and mischief; an incendiary.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Briefly imprisoned for his firebrand politicking, he later joined a group of exiles in Libya, where Muamar Gadafy was eagerly spreading his crackpot revolutionary ideas among West African dissidents.
  • (2) Instead, Foot fell under the spell of the shipyard firebrands.
  • (3) He has no wish to go down in history as a Jew-baiting, race-hating firebrand, as many now think of him, who led a separatist movement to one great march.
  • (4) On Monday I posted a video interview with the Labour MP Jess Phillips , the latest in a series of relaxed conversations with political figures, recent examples being the colourful Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and the rightwing firebrand Peter Hitchens.
  • (5) Nonetheless, the incumbent has faced stiff competition, especially from firebrand opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who has been able to attract crowds of over 100,000 people.
  • (6) Cruz has long been known in Washington as a partisan firebrand, but he boasted about his bipartisan record on pro-Israel legislation.
  • (7) Yet it was Edmonds, the former public-sector boss, who was the private-sector firebrand.
  • (8) Since I arrived, few here doubted that the incumbent firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad would win.
  • (9) Masuku also rejected the firebrand leftist Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF): "I read the EFF manifesto and I found some pretty good darned stuff there but they are so radical and so violent, they actually sound racist.
  • (10) It was the day of the funeral of Jimmy Reid – the firebrand union leader who had kept the docks open by occupying them in the 1970s – and Ed joined the dockworkers who lined the streets as the cortege passed.
  • (11) But one House Democrat at the Baltimore retreat questioned whether the firebrand from Massachusetts was the answer to the party’s problems.
  • (12) But an international landscape increasingly dominated by nationalist firebrands, conservative zealots and policy makers in thrall to austerity economics is always apt to waste opportunities.
  • (13) A firebrand youth leader seen as a threat to Jacob Zuma's hopes of re-election as South African president faces possible expulsion from the governing African National Congress (ANC).
  • (14) On camera, in This Is Not a Film, Jafar Panahi does not look like your obvious firebrand.
  • (15) Through the 1990s, he went to jail as part of a poll tax non-payment campaign and for civil disobedience at Faslane nuclear submarine base near Glasgow, leading from the front on picket lines, and relishing the title of "socialist firebrand".
  • (16) Its chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, is a firebrand political outsider and one of the most powerful women in India.
  • (17) The cover of Various Voices is a portrait of Pinter by Justin Mortimer, which is in the National Portrait Gallery (Pinter the political firebrand is also Pinter the establishment man, though he did turn down John Major's offer of a knighthood).
  • (18) The firebrand critic of the Communist party has been repeatedly detained by public security agents and has testified that he was tortured and threatened with death.
  • (19) Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU Rightwing detractors decry him as an anachronistic firebrand cast in the Scargill mould.
  • (20) (The former First Daughter was eight when she entered the White House, grew into a student firebrand and is now a stay-at-home mother in Atlanta: Rosalynn shows me a photo of Amy's elder son holding a baby and says, "I just love that photo.

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