GREEK FIRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Greek fire mean? 

• GREEK FIRE (noun)
  The noun GREEK FIRE has 1 sense:

1. a mixture used by Byzantine Greeks that was often shot at adversaries; catches fire when wetted

  Familiarity information: GREEK FIRE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREEK FIRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mixture used by Byzantine Greeks that was often shot at adversaries; catches fire when wetted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("Greek fire" is a kind of...):

arm; weapon; weapon system (any instrument or instrumentality used in fighting or hunting)

mixture ((chemistry) a substance consisting of two or more substances mixed together (not in fixed proportions and not with chemical bonding))

 Context examples 

I cannot tell; but I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation, were to take his warnings in time—they or their seed might yet escape a fatal Rimoth-Gilead.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)