red steer
noun Australian
A destructive fire on scrubland or in a forest, especially one that spreads rapidly: I checked to see whether my two acacias had survived the red steer...
- Fire is the genie of the bush, the red steer jumping the fence and running amok.
- The red steer hasn't visited the farms in any serious way since Black Saturday in 1938.
- Swagmen are reported to be letting loose the 'red steer' after being refused rations by station owners.
Origin
1930s: from red + steer2, symbolic of the fire as a farm animal that escapes confinement and rampages over land, causing destruction.
- bed-warmer
- bed-wetter
- bed-wetting
- bee
- be easier said than done
- Beeb
- bee balm
- bee beetle
- bee bread
- beech
- Beecham, Sir Thomas
- beechdrops
- Beecher, Catherine
- Beecher, Henry Ward
- beech fern
- Beeching, Richard
- beech marten
- beechmast
- beechnut
- beech tree
- beechwood
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- bee dance
- beedi
- bee-eater