| 释义 |
ˈfire-ball
[f. fire n. + ball n.1]
1. a. A ball of fire or flame; applied esp. to certain large luminous meteors, and to lightning in a globular form.
1555Eden Decades 217 The fyer baule or starre commonly cauled saynt Helen. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit 616/2 There was such a Tempest & thunder with great firebals of lightning. 1835Browning Paracelsus i. ‘I go to prove’, Unless God send His hail Or blinding fireballs. 1862Tyndall Mountaineer. i. 8 Sometimes the lightning seems to burst, like a fireball. 1883H. A. Newton in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 108/1 Another class of luminous meteors known as shooting or falling stars, fire balls [etc.]. 1888P. G. Tait ibid. XXIII. 330/1 The most mysterious phenomenon is what goes by the name of ‘globe-lightning’ or ‘fire-ball’.
b. spec. The ball of flame resulting from the explosion of a nuclear device.
1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Feb. 45/2 The exploding super-bomb produces a 3 to 4 mile diameter fireball. 1957Times 18 May 6/4 The base of the fireball was well above the surface of the sea.
2. a. Mil. A ball filled with combustible or explosive materials, used as a projectile, either to damage the enemy by explosion or to set fire to their works.
1595Barnfield Cassandra xli, Vulcan darted Against their Tower his burning fier-bals. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xxiv. iv. 249 Tumbling downe huge stones, with firebrands, and fireballs [malleolis]. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. v. 120 They shot above 2000 Cannon Bullets into the Town, and 500 Fireballs. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Fire balls are bags of canvas filled with gunpowder, sulphur, saltpetre, pitch, &c. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 505 A fire-ball struck the rája's elephant.
b. fig.
1675Traherne Chr. Ethics xxv. 390 Virulent speeches are a fire-ball tossed to and fro, of them that love death. 1718Hickes J. Kettlewell ii. xxix. 131 At this Time there were Fire-Balls of Dissention flung..all over the Kingdom.
c. Her. (See quot.)
1830Robson Brit. Her. III. Gloss. s.v. Ball, Fire Ball, or Ball fired proper, is always represented with the fire issuing from the top. When otherwise, it should be so expressed in the blazon; as, a ball fired in four places.
3. a. A ball of coal-dust and clay or other material, used for kindling fires. b. A ball of fire-brick, put into a fire to save fuel.
Add:4. An extremely energetic or fiery person; = ball of fire (c) s.v. ball n.1 6 b.
1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 183/2 Fire-ball,..an ambitious, efficient and fast worker; a very active person. 1972Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 36/4 A normal boy is a fireball of energy. 1986New Yorker 5 May 108/3 My mother..was a fireball. We had a chow..and one night it bit me and she almost went through the ceiling. |