Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a victim of a venereal disease.

1779

Nocturnal Revels 2 181: We beg, however, that the reader may not put a false contstruction upon this last expression [i.e. Fr. for ‘a lit fuse’], and think that there was the least reason to suspect a firebrand on either side.

the vagina.

1628		Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests E3: Maids in your smocks, Looke well to your locks, and your tinder Boxe.
1725		View of London & Westminster (2nd part) 42: [in a list of prostitutes] Miss Tinder [Is Visited] By Col. Strikefire.
c.1790		‘The Manual Exercise’ Irish Ballads 2: Make ready your cartridge observe what I say, / And also your firelock for that’s my desire.
1834		‘The Tinder-Box’ Flash Chaunter 3: Said Roger unto Jane [...] Come, let me strike a light in your tinder-box. / Dear Roger, said the maid, my tinder-box is new, / It never has been open’d, but I cannot refuse you.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see separate entry.

(US prison) to have AIDS.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Went Up In That Fire: Has AIDS.

to catch a venereal disease, i.e. to be burned adj.¹ (1)

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 858/1: C.19.

to give someone a venereal disease.

c.1700		‘The Poor Whores Complaint’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 218: If we set them on fire at both ends, / The devil he may quench them.
c.1780		The only True LIST, of those celebrated SPORTING LADIES [broadsheet] Eliz. Hen-y must be guarded against, as she has not only set fire to many Farmers, but burnt several of their men.
c.1798		‘Covent Garden Ramble’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 78: This little dirty stinking slut, Set me all on fire.

(US prison) a warning that there is an officer in the vicinity.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Fire on the Line: Officer on the tier or in the area. Also, ‘Fire on the Walk.’ (MT).

(US) a divorceé.

1922

Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 14 Sept. 4/4: The Flappers’ Dictionary [...] Fire-Alarm: A divorced woman.

1. (US) a device used to create fire, a form of fire-bomb.

1863

letter Oct. 10 cited inPittsburgh Dly Commercial (PA) 7 Nov. 3/7: I found another of their ‘fire-bugs’ which consists of a tin can holding about a quart, in the centre of which is suspended a smaller can. The inner can contains powder, and the space around it is filled with cottonand turpentine. A time-fuse communicates [...] It exploded [...] covering the ground with fire.

2. (und.) an arsonist.

1869		Buffalo Morning Exp. (NY) 27 Feb. 2/6: [headline] capture of a ‘fire-bug’ / Choate, the Supposed Newbury Port, Mass. Incendiary Under Arrest.
1875		Pitssburgh Dly Post (PA) 16 Feb. 4/2: incendiarism / A firebug visited Jno. Cook’s stable [...] and while Mrs Cook was milking her cows, set fire to the structure.
1882		Nth Eastern Ensign (Benalla, Vic.) 27 Jan. 2/3: These ‘fire-bugs’ who maliciously set fire to the properties of others.
1885		Cooperstown Courier (ND) 9 Jan. 6/2: The Criminal Calendar / A trio of firebugs, who have been infesting Trempealeau county, Wis., have been bagged.
1890		public notice cited in Teleg. (Brisbane) 28 Aug. 2/7: ‘Fire-bugs, take warning! The gallows are ready and hanging ready to begin. Suspicious characters had better give Elko a wide berth’ .
1897		Eldridge & Watts Our Rival, the Rascal 299: Even among rascals, the ‘fire-bug’ is a monstrosity. [...] No other distinct class of rascals exhibits such callous indifference or utter recklessness in the sacrifice of life and property.
1900		Wilkes-Barre Record (PA) 2 Jan. 2/4: The firebugs started the fire in the haymow.
1907		Sun. Times (Sydney) 25 Aug. 8/2: Added to the general outlawry, there have been terrible depredations by fire bugs. An incendiary only a few days ago fired the arsenal at Toulon.
1912		Advertiser (Adelaide) 27 Aug. 11/5: Apparently it only needs the sight of a Cabinet Minister to make [a suffragette] long for blood and to turn her into a reckless hatchet-slinger, bomb-thrower, or ‘fire- bug’.
1913		Wkly Jrnl-Miner (Prescott, AZ) 1 Jan. 2/1: [R]avages of the ‘firebug’ [...] have reached enormous dimensions in the metropolis.
1920		Brooklyn Dly Eagle 4 Jan. Long Is. supp. 8/5: [headline] think boy firebug started ten fires / Series of Incendiary cases [...] Laid to Lad Seeking thrills.
1923		Sun (Sydney) 5 Mar. 8/1: The supposed firebug evidently watches every move that is being made.
1933		Lebanon Exp. (OR) 31 Aug. 1/2: An unidentified firebug [was] seen attempting to set fire to the M.E. Phillips & Son store.
1935		: The ‘Phantom Fire-Bug,’ the incendiarist who has eluded observation despite a police watch on the premises, set fire to an unoccupied house for the third time .
1946		Greenwood Commonwealth (MS) 25 May 6/2: [He] has become a professional firebug. His speciality is hotel mattresses.
1948		Truth (Sydney) 4 Jan. 1/6: It is possible that a miniacal firebug, who is believed to be responsible for the fires, may have thought the golf club house was unoccupied.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 190/1: Fire Spaniels or Fire Bugs. Incendiaries.
1953		Boston Globe (MA) 18 Feb. 7/2: A firebug touched off the $2,000,000 blaze that swept baltimore’s historic waterfront.
1967		R. Conot Rivers of Blood 383: Only Dorton and Robert Ernest Pegues of all those who might be termed major firebugs was caught.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 35: A firebug in old Parramatta, / Was really as mad as a hatter.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 62: There was clearly a firebug at large in town.

see separate entries.

(W.I.) old, ragged, workclothes.

1958

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

(US) a term of address, suggesting one who ‘explodes’.

2021

T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 88: ‘Too late for that [i.e. escape], firecracker. You sit tight’.

see separate entries.

1. a clergyman [the fire is that of hell; 20C+ use is naut. jargon].

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US) in pl., a style of side whiskers [visual resemblance].

1907

N.-Y. Eve. Journal 7 Feb. n.p.: They switched to the ‘nanny goat’ style then and after that went to the side boys, more commonly called ‘fire escapes’.

(Aus.) strong liquor; spirits.

1890

Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 8/3: This total represents 88 millions of pints, or 11 millions of gallons of fire-fluid. Or – just imagine it – a lagoon of grog six miles square and a little over three feet deep throughout!

one who begs on the basis of having lost their possessions through fire.

1842

Edinburgh Rev. July 481: The writer then enters into details as to ‘the Fire-Lurkers,’ or those ‘who go about begging for loss by fire’.

see separate entries.

(US black) physical strength and ability.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 237: fire power Physical or mental strength and ability.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 88: This guy with more firepower’n the Sixth Fleet comes in.

one who robs those who are otherwise preoccupied with watching their, or someone else’s, home burn down.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 131: Fire-Priggers. [...] These wretches who attend on fires, and rob the sufferers under pretence of coming to give assistance.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fire priggers, villains who rob at fires under pretence of assisting in removing the goods.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 314/2: fire priggers, [...] voleurs qui, dans un sinistre, s’emparent de marchandises et de valeurs, sous prétexte de les arracher aux flammes.

1. (orig. US) invulnerable, guaranteed against failure.

1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 281: He pitches it into her most uncommon powerful [...] but she seems close and stubborn, and perfect fireproof.
1958		(con. 1890s) S.H. Adams Tenderloin 171: The Doc is fireproof. But there might be something doing with some of his gang.
1999		Sun. Tel. mag. 12 Dec. 18: It’s terribly easy to make arrangements so you’re fireproof.

2. (US Und.) having made one’s peace prior to death.

1933

Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 36: fireproofed, adj. having made peace with the world before dying.

(US Und.) a safe that is ostentatiously fireproofed, but offers no real security from safebreakers.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 70/1: Fire-proof peter. A seemingly strong safe which is merely fireproofed but can easily be broken by safe-crackers.

(US gay) a militant gay activist.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.

1. intense anger, uncontrolled fury; thus pick up someone’s fire-rage, to take someone’s side in a quarrel as energetically as if it were one’s own.

1989

cited in Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage (1996).

2. of a man, one who loses his temper easily, who ‘flies off the handle’.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(W.I., Guyn.) of a woman, one who loses her temper easily.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

see separate entry.

see fire v.² (3)

doing very well, typically of a rock band, a sportsperson or some similar achiever.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 141: The basketball team has won eight straight — they’re on fire.
1990		T. Pluto Loose Balls 86: ‘Donnie, Jelly might get 60 tonight.’ Donnie said, ‘Steve, he’ll be lucky to get three more baskets.’ I said, ‘No way, the man’s on fire’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 7: There’d been nights not so long ago, nights like Carlisle, when the Grams had been on fire.
2004		E. Wald Escaping the Delta 259: B.B. [King] was on fire. [. . .] It was one of the greatest blues performances I have seen.
2018		M. Mesko Confessions of a Caddie 127: Mike [a golfer] was on fire, throwin 'em at the pins and draining everything he looked at.

to deal promptly with sudden crises.

1990		T. Pluto Loose Balls 412: I was the ABA’s general counsel and it seemed like we were always putting out fires.
1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 20: As the manager [...] he knew what his priorities were: to put out fires and to protect his salesmen from the main office.
2002		Earley & Shur WITSEC 150: Partington literally held WITSEC together, flying across the country putting out fires, handling all of the most important witnesses.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 343: A few days later, my manager arrived back from London to put out fires.