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firebreak
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: fire break
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
firebreak (plural firebreaks)
- An area cleared of all flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading across it.
- Synonym: (Australia) firetrail
- The firefighters used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak in the forest to try to contain the forest fire.
- 2014 September 19, Andrew Gumbel, “California's burning up: firefighters rush to the scene as major wildfires scorch the state”, in The Guardian:
- When a fire does break out, it tends to burn longer and further because the natural firebreaks that might have existed from previous, smaller fires are not there.
- 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian:
- More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.
- 2025 September 3, Graham Readfearn, “There are just 150 of these creamy-flowered shrubs left in the world – and a Victorian fire break could destroy dozens”, in The Guardian:
- A mere 150 round-leaf pomaderris were thought left in the world in 2021 and now a planned firebreak in Victoria could destroy dozens of the plants.
- (figurative) Any separating barrier.
- 1984, Dietrich Schroeer, Science, Technology and the Nuclear Arms Race, page 293:
- That policy could consist of a statement that the declaring nation would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would strengthen the firebreak between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons.
- 2012, Daniel Levine, Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique, page 112:
- First, it serves to demonstrate that the practice of sustainable critique […] need not be impossibly philosophically rarefied […] Second, it serves as a firebreak against the unrelieved negativity that, it is sometimes charged, follows from Adorno's practices of reflexivity.
- 2021 September 7, Rowena Mason and Nicola Davis, “No 10 not ruling out ‘firebreak’ lockdown if Covid cases rise”, in The Guardian:
- Asked about the idea of a firebreak during the next school holiday, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said it was “not true that the government is planning a lockdown or firebreak around the October half-term”.
Translations
area cleared of flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading
See also
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