| / English Dictionary |
FIERY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Like or suggestive of fire
Example:
an igneous desert atmosphere
Synonyms:
fiery; igneous
Classified under:
Similar:
hot (used of physical heat; having a high or higher than desirable temperature or giving off heat or feeling or causing a sensation of heat or burning)
Derivation:
fieriness (the heat or the color of fire)
fire (the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Very intense
Example:
flaming passions
Synonyms:
fiery; flaming
Classified under:
Similar:
hot (extended meanings; especially of psychological heat; marked by intensity or vehemence especially of passion or enthusiasm)
Derivation:
fieriness (a passionate and quick-tempered nature)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Characterized by intense emotion
Example:
a torrid love affair
Synonyms:
ardent; fervent; fervid; fiery; impassioned; perfervid; torrid
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
passionate (having or expressing strong emotions)
Derivation:
fieriness (a passionate and quick-tempered nature)
fire (feelings of great warmth and intensity)
Context examples:
Although the oldest, Jo had the least self-control, and had hard times trying to curb the fiery spirit which was continually getting her into trouble.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Earth is thought to have gradually coalesced in fiery collisions of smaller planetoids – and those hellish conditions can now explain an enduring scientific mystery.
(Fiery Collisions That Gave Birth to Earth Could Have Evaporated 40% of Our World, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Then, again, I have heard it is no use your applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but real bright, blazing, fiery red.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The behaviour of this lava lake alternated between phases of fiery ‘spattering’ powered by large gas bubbles bursting through the magma, and more gentle gas release, accompanied by slow and steady motion of the lava.
(Size matters: if you are a bubble of volcanic gas, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
It was my good fortune, that no ill accident happened in these entertainments; only once a fiery horse, that belonged to one of the captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one hand, I set down the troop with the other, in the same manner as I took them up.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
She brushed her nose with her paws, trying to dislodge the fiery darts, thrust it into the snow, and rubbed it against twigs and branches, and all the time leaping about, ahead, sidewise, up and down, in a frenzy of pain and fright.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
She was a woman in the prime of life; of a severe countenance; and subject (particularly in the arms) to a sort of perpetual measles or fiery rash.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the fiery mood of the prelate.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
By nature I am, I admit, somewhat fiery, and under provocation I am inclined to be violent.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Just at my bedside, the figure stopped: the fiery eyes glared upon me—she thrust up her candle close to my face, and extinguished it under my eyes.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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