Dictionaries › English

fireball

Pronunciation: /ˈfaɪəbɔːl/

The English word “fireball” has 17 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A ball of fire, especially one associated with an explosion, or (fiction, mythology) thrown as a weapon.
  2. A feisty, strong-willed person.
  3. Synonym of fastball (“a high-speed pitch of a baseball”).
  4. A bright glow caused by a spacecraft re-entering an atmosphere.
  5. A meteor bright enough to cast shadows; a bolide.
  6. A class of sailing dinghy with a single trapeze and a symmetrical spinnaker, sailed by a crew of two.
  7. A bag or ball filled with combustible material which is thrown as a weapon or to set something alight.
  8. A charge depicting a disc-shaped bombshell with flames emitted from the top, or sometimes from the top, bottom, and on either side.
  9. An emanation of St. Elmo's fire; also (later), of ball lightning.
  10. A ball-shaped firelighter (“small block of a flammable substance, typically a combination of sawdust and wax, used to light fires”).
  11. A ball of heat-resistant material placed in a fire to slow down the burning of the fuel.
  12. A statement intended to cause dissension or as a provocation.

adjective

  1. Excellent, terrific.

verb

  1. To attack (someone or something) with balls of fire.
  2. To explode in a ball of fire or flame.
  3. To emerge suddenly; to explode.
  4. To pitch a baseball very fast.

Etymology

The noun is derived from fire (noun) + ball (noun). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “fireball” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.