FIERY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fiery mean? 

• FIERY (adjective)
  The adjective FIERY has 3 senses:

1. characterized by intense emotion

2. like or suggestive of fire

3. very intense

  Familiarity information: FIERY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIERY (adjective)

Comparative: fierier   
Superlative: fieriest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by intense emotion

Synonyms:

ardent; fervent; fervid; fiery; impassioned; perfervid; torrid

Context example:

a torrid love affair

Similar:

passionate (having or expressing strong emotions)

Derivation:

fieriness (a passionate and quick-tempered nature)

fire (feelings of great warmth and intensity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Like or suggestive of fire

Synonyms:

fiery; igneous

Context example:

an igneous desert atmosphere

Similar:

hot (used of physical heat; having a high or higher than desirable temperature or giving off heat or feeling or causing a sensation of heat or burning)

Derivation:

fieriness (the heat or the color of fire)

fire (the process of combustion of inflammable materials producing heat and light and (often) smoke)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Very intense

Synonyms:

fiery; flaming

Context example:

flaming passions

Similar:

hot (extended meanings; especially of psychological heat; marked by intensity or vehemence especially of passion or enthusiasm)

Derivation:

fieriness (a passionate and quick-tempered nature)

 Context examples 

I was well-nigh choking, and my eyes were certainly fiery.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His face was as fiery as ever; his eyes were as small, and rather deeper set.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Especially notable were his thuglike hands and the fiery gleams in his blood-shot eyes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And when he had said that, two great black cats came with one tremendous leap and sat down on each side of him, and looked savagely at him with their fiery eyes.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar?” cried the fiery dame, turning upon the archer.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Well?” he asked in that vibrant voice which told of the fiery soul behind the cold grey face.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a wonder to all of us to see this man’s fiery nature breaking suddenly through the artificial constraints with which he held it in check.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was of Welsh blood, fiery and passionate.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Foremost of all, of course, were the sight of the fiery caves and the certainty that some troglodytic race inhabited them.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)