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Smoke vs Fire - What's the difference?

smoke | fire |

As a proper noun smoke

is london.

As a noun fire is

the sector of the economy including finance, insurance and real estate businesses.

smoke

English

(wikipedia smoke)

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

  • (uncountable) The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.}}
  • (colloquial, countable) A cigarette.
  • (colloquial, countable, never plural) An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
  • * 1884 , (Mark Twain), (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Chapter VII:
  • I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke , and went on watching.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors .
  • (uncountable) A light grey colour/color tinted with blue.
  • (military, uncountable) A particulate of solid or liquid particles dispersed into the air on the battlefield to degrade enemy ground or for aerial observation. Smoke has many uses--screening smoke, signaling smoke, smoke curtain, smoke haze, and smoke deception. Thus it is an artificial aerosol.
  • (baseball, slang) A fastball.
  • Synonyms

    * (cigarette) cig, ciggy, cancer stick, fag (qualifier)

    Derived terms

    * Big Smoke * holy smoke * no smoke without fire * secondhand smoke/second-hand smoke * sidestream smoke * smoke alarm * smoke and mirrors * smoke bomb * smokebox * smoke detector * smoke-dried * smoke eater * smoke-filled room * smoke-free zone * smokeho * smokehouse * smokejack * smoke jumper, smokejumper * smokeless * smoke ring * smokescreen/smoke screen/smoke-screen * smoke signal * smokestack * smoke tree * smoke wagon * Smokey the Bear * throwing smoke

    Verb

  • To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke , and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.}}
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=To Edward
  • To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke regularly or habitually.
  • To give off smoke.
  • * Milton
  • Hard by a cottage chimney smokes .
  • To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.
  • (slang) To perform ( music) energetically or skillfully. Almost always in present participle form.
  • (US, slang) To kill, especially with a gun.
  • (NZ, slang) To beat someone at something.
  • (obsolete) To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.
  • * (Geoffrey Chaucer)
  • Smoking the temple.
  • (obsolete) To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
  • * Chapman
  • I alone / Smoked his true person, talked with him.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu.
  • * Addison
  • Upon that I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.
  • (slang, obsolete, transitive) To ridicule to the face; to quiz.
  • To burn; to be kindled; to rage.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 20
  • The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.
  • To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.
  • * Dryden
  • Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.
  • To suffer severely; to be punished.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Some of you shall smoke for it in Rome.
    (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the verb "smoke") * chain-smoke * smoker * smoke out * smoking

    Adjective

  • Of the colour known as smoke.
  • Made of or with smoke.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black)
  • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=1 citation , passage=If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the

    See also

    * bogue * cigar * cigarette * hypercapnia * reek * pipe * smudge pot * tobacco * typhus *

    fire

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A (usually self-sustaining) chemical reaction involving the bonding of oxygen with carbon or other fuel, with the production of heat and the presence of flame or smouldering.
  • (countable) Something that has produced or is capable of producing this chemical reaction, such as a campfire.
  • * , chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.}}
  • (countable) The often accidental occurrence of fire in a certain place.
  • (uncountable, alchemy) One of the four basic elements.
  • ).
  • (countable, British) A heater or stove used in place of a real fire (such as an electric fire).
  • (countable) The elements necessary to start a fire.
  • (uncountable) The bullets or other projectiles fired from a gun.
  • Strength of passion, whether love or hate.
  • * Atterbury
  • He had fire in his temper.
  • Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
  • And bless their critic with a poet's fire .
  • Splendour; brilliancy; lustre; hence, a star.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Stars, hide your fires .
  • * (John Milton)
  • As in a zodiac representing the heavenly fires .
  • (countable) A button (on a joypad, joystick or similar device) usually used to make a video game character fire a weapon.
  • Derived terms

    * all-fire * add fuel to the fire * back fire * balefire * ball of fire * baptism of fire * bonfire * brush-fire * brush fire * bushfire * campfire * catch fire * ceasefire * covering fire * electric fire * fiery * fight fire with fire * fire alarm * fire and brimstone * fire away * firearm * fireball * fire bay * fire beater * fireblast * firebolt * firebomb * firebrand * firebreak * fire brigade * firebug * fireclay * fire company * firecracker * fire department * firedog * fire drill * fire eater * fire engine * fire escape * fire exit * fire extinguisher * fire-fight * firefight * firefighter * fire flapper * firefly * fireguard * fire hose * firehouse * fire hydrant * fire in the belly * firelighter * fireman * fireplace * fireplug * fireproof * fire resistant * fire retardant * fireshine * fire ship * fire station * fireside * fire sign * fire-starter * fire step * firestop * fire swab * fire swatter * fire teaser * fire trench * fire truck * fire up * firewire * firewoman * firewood * firework * forest fire * friendly fire * gas fire * grassfire * grass fire * Greek fire * hang fire * heap coals on fire * hold your fire * hold someone's feet to the fire * irons in the fire * light someone's fire * no smoke without fire * on fire * open fire * ordeal of fire * play with fire * Promethean fire * pull out of the fire * rapid fire * real fire * St Anthony's fire * St Elmo's fire * trial by fire

    Verb

    (fir)
  • (lb) To set (something) on fire.
  • * Chapter 20:
  • *:"Then I slipped up again with a box of matches, fired' my heap of paper and rubbish, put the chairs and bedding thereby, led the gas to the affair, by means of an india-rubber tube, and waving a farewell to the room left it for the last time." ¶ "You '''fired''' the house!" exclaimed Kemp. ¶ "' Fired the house. It was the only way to cover my trail—and no doubt it was insured."
  • *1907 , (Jack London), (The Iron Heel)
  • *:It was long a question of debate, whether the burning of the South Side ghetto was accidental, or whether it was done by the Mercenaries; but it is definitely settled now that the ghetto was fired by the Mercenaries under orders from their chiefs.
  • (lb) To heat without setting on fire, as ceramic, metal objects, etc.
  • :
  • :
  • *
  • *:So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired -in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  • (lb) To drive away by setting a fire.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
  • (lb) To terminate the employment contract of (an employee), especially for cause (such as misconduct or poor performance).
  • *1969 , (Vladimir Nabokov), , Penguin 2011, p.226:
  • *:The first, obvious choice was hysterical and fantastic Blanche – had there not been her timidity, her fear of being ‘fired ’.
  • (lb) To shoot (a device that launches a projectile or a pulse of stream of something).
  • :
  • :
  • (lb) To shoot a gun, a cannon or a similar weapon.
  • :
  • :
  • To shoot; to attempt to score a goal.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC
  • , title= Wigan 2-2 Arsenal , passage=Andrey Arshavin equalised with a superb volley into the corner before Nicklas Bendtner coolly fired Arsenal in front.}}
  • To cause an action potential in a cell.
  • :
  • (lb) To forcibly direct (something).
  • :
  • To initiate an event (by means of an event handler).
  • :
  • To inflame; to irritate, as the passions.
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:Love had fired my mind.
  • To animate; to give life or spirit to.
  • :
  • To feed or serve the fire of.
  • :
  • To light up as if by fire; to illuminate.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:[The sun] fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.
  • (lb) To cauterize.
  • To catch fire; to be kindled.
  • To be irritated or inflamed with passion.
  • Synonyms

    * (set on fire) See set on fire * (sense) let off, loose (archery), shoot, * (terminate the employment of) dismiss, be given one's cards, be given the boot]], be given the elbow, [[heave-ho, be given the old heave-ho, let go, make redundant, sack, throw out * (sense) open fire, shoot * See also

    Antonyms

    * (to terminate the employment) hire

    Derived terms

    * fire away * fire off * fire up * firing * overfired * ! * underfired * unfirable * you're fired

    Statistics

    *