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Fawkes

American

[fawks] / fɔks /

noun

Guy, 1570–1606, English conspirator and leader in the Gunpowder plot of 1605: Guy Fawkes Day is observed on November 5 by the building of effigies and bonfires.

Fawkes British

/ fɔːks /

noun

Guy . 1570–1606, English conspirator, executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament (1605). Effigies of him (guys) are burnt in Britain on Guy Fawkes Day (Nov 5)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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 sky pulsed red with the glow of a distant Guy Fawkes Night bonfire, and a cold, wet fog sat heavily on the town of Inverness.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

The second image is a closer-up angle, showing a person wearing a crash helmet and holding a bottle with a lit sparkler, sitting on the shoulders of another person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.

From BBC • Jan. 2, 2026

A perennial target of assassins, James survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes and confederates hoped to blow up Parliament.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

In a chapter on hedgehogs, Rundell writes of how these “delicate, erudite-looking” critters are threatened by something seemingly benign: the popular Guy Fawkes Day bonfires in England.

From Salon • Dec. 31, 2024

They were back in Dumbledore’s office, the windows dark, and Fawkes sat silent as Snape sat quite still, as Dumbledore walked around him, talking.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023