fireship

See also: fire ship

English

Etymology

From fire +‎ ship.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

fireship (plural fireships)

1. (nautical, historical) A wooden ship set alight and then sent floating into an enemy flotilla, with the aim of spreading the fire among them.

   Synonym: (obsolete) brulot

   Fireships were famously used by Sir Francis Drake when fighting the Spanish Armada of 1588.

   • 1984, Witold Rodzinksi, The Walled Kingdom: A History of China from 2000 BC to the Present‎, London: Fontana Paperbacks, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 69:

     His attempt in 208 to cross the Yangtse was frustrated in the famous battle of Ch'ih-pi, in which his immense fleet was destroyed by his enemies' fireships, and most of his army slain.

2. (vulgar, slang) A diseased prostitute.

Translations

wooden ship set alight

Finnish: polttolaiva (fi) French: brûlot (fr) m German: Brander m, Brandschiff n Greek: πυρπολικό (el) n (pyrpolikó) Italian: brulotto (it) m Polish: brander (pl) m Portuguese: brulote m Russian: бра́ндер (ru) m (bránder) Spanish: brulote m

See also

(boat ablaze):

• fireboat
• hellburner

(prostitute):

• frenchified
• venereal disease

References

• Depraved and Insulting English – Peter Novobatsky & Ammon Shea →ISBN