FIREMAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fireman mean? 

• FIREMAN (noun)
  The noun FIREMAN has 4 senses:

1. play in which children pretend to put out a fire

2. a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship)

3. a pitcher who does not start the game

4. a member of a fire department who tries to extinguish fires

  Familiarity information: FIREMAN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIREMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Play in which children pretend to put out a fire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("fireman" is a kind of...):

child's play; play (activity by children that is guided more by imagination than by fixed rules)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fireman; stoker

Hypernyms ("fireman" is a kind of...):

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A pitcher who does not start the game

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fireman; relief pitcher; reliever

Hypernyms ("fireman" is a kind of...):

hurler; pitcher; twirler ((baseball) the person who does the pitching)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fireman"):

closer; finisher ((baseball) a relief pitcher who can protect a lead in the last inning or two of the game)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A member of a fire department who tries to extinguish fires

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fire-eater; fire fighter; firefighter; fireman

Hypernyms ("fireman" is a kind of...):

defender; guardian; protector; shielder (a person who cares for persons or property)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fireman"):

fire chief; fire marshal (the head of a fire department)

fire warden; forest fire fighter; ranger (an official who is responsible for managing and protecting an area of forest)

Holonyms ("fireman" is a member of...):

fire department (the department of local government responsible for preventing and extinguishing fires)

 Context examples 

She and all the firemen smelled the burned flesh from inside it.

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

The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor.

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

Between the acts he mustered his following—three fellows he knew from the nail works, a railroad fireman, and half a dozen of the Boo Gang, along with as many more from the dread Eighteen-and-Market Gang.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mealy's father was a waterman, who had the additional distinction of being a fireman, and was engaged as such at one of the large theatres; where some young relation of Mealy's—I think his little sister—did Imps in the Pantomimes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)