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bonfire

noun
/ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ//ˈbɒnfaɪə/UK/ˈbɑnˌfaɪɚ/US

Etymology

PIE word *péh₂wr̥ From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).

  1. inherited from bonnefyre — “a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”

Definitions

  1. A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.

    • O thou art a perpetuall triumph, an euerlaſting bonefire light, […]

  2. A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items

    A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.

    • I had thought to haue let in ſome of all Profeſſions, that goe the Primroſe way to th'euerlasting Bonfire.
    • He's mounted on a Hazel Bavin, / A Cropt malignant Baker gave 'em. / And to the largeſt Bonefire, riding / Th' have Roaſted Cook already, and Pride-m.

  3. Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc.

    • And one thing I like in you, novv that you ſee / The bonefire of your Ladies ſtate burnt out, / You give it over, doe you not?
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. A fire lit to cremate a dead body

      A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.

      • Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad, / Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles: / And making bonfires for my ouerthrow. / But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters / Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]

    2. To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire

      To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight.

      • [L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning.
      • Sir, there are as many public documents as you could put in this room that must be taken out and bonfired, that have cost millions, that must be burned up, unless this provision of the honorable Senator from Illinois is carried.

    3. To fire (pottery) using a bonfire.

      • The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.

    4. To start a bonfire in (a place)

      To start a bonfire in (a place); to light up (a place) with a bonfire.

      • They almost carried him [the king] into the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired.

    5. To make, or celebrate around, a bonfire.

      • Seems as if one day we are all bar-b-quing, swimming, jetskiing, bonfiring, and the next thing you know everyone is gone, leaving the house empty (except for the sad pile of damp towels and a refrigerator full of sloppy Jo's).
      • Before I got out of Josh's car as he dropped me off after Marmalade's that first night, he said they were bonfiring at Shell Shores the next afternoon. He didn't even ask if I wanted to meet them, just assumed I'd be there.

The neighborhood

Derived

bonfire boy, Bonfire Island, bonfirelike, Bonfire Night, bonfire of the vanities, bonfire society, bonfire toffee, bonfire tree, bonnie, piss on someone's bonfire, bonfiring

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bonfire. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA