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fire off
Idioms and Phrases
Say or write and send away rapidly, as in He fired off three more questions , or She fired off a letter of complaint to the president . This expression originally (from about 1700) was, and still is, used in the sense of “discharge a weapon or ammunition,” as in The police were instructed to fire off canisters of tear gas . The figurative use dates from the late 1800s.Example Sentences
A British tourist has been reported missing in Thailand after a boat caught fire off the coast of the island of Koh Tao.
Maybe he'll find the fire off the bench.
Mourners flinch and duck for cover when his comrades fire off a gun salute.
In 2019, a dive boat caught fire off Santa Cruz Island, killing 34 people in the deadliest maritime disaster in modern California history.
A 51-foot power vessel caught fire off Catalina over the weekend, and firefighters could not save it.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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