fire up
Idioms-
Inflame with enthusiasm, anger, or another strong emotion, as in Her speech fired up the crowd in favor of her proposals . This expression dates from the early 1800s, when it referred literally to starting a fire in a furnace or boiler; its figurative use dates from the late 1800s.
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Light a pipe, cigar, or cigarette, as in Do you mind if I fire up? [Late 1800s] A more common term, however, is light up , def. 2.
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Start the ignition of an engine, as in Whenever he tried to fire up the motor, it stalled . [Mid-1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The debate over a minimum age for social media use has been fired up by Australia's decision last year to ban children from a range of platforms including Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok.
From BBC
That includes lower-surface cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles that fire up and over the roughly 35,000 feet that commercial flights typically operate at.
Now, maybe, there was an old man of the mountains, maybe he could cast a “bad luck” spell, and maybe he would get all fired up if I said I didn’t believe in him.
From Literature
When a player is this fired up in game one pay attention.
From Los Angeles Times
At the same time surges of Arctic air in the USA and Canada helped to fire up a strong Atlantic jet stream that directed rain-bearing areas of low pressure towards western Europe.
From BBC
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.
