balefire
Americannoun
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a large fire in the open air; bonfire.
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a signal fire; beacon.
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the fire of a funeral pile.
noun
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a bonfire
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a beacon fire
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a funeral pyre
Etymology
Origin of balefire
1250–1300; Middle English bal ( e ) fir, equivalent to bale (< Old Norse bāl funeral pyre) + fire fire; replacing Old English bǣlfȳr
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.
Nay, even such a birth hath Venus of her own, a second Paris, another balefire for Troy towers reborn.'
From The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil
It was Hildeburh’s hest, at Hnaef’s own pyre the bairn of her body on brands to lay, his bones to burn, on the balefire placed, at his uncle’s side.
From Beowulf by Francis Barton Gummere
A single window in the wing gleamed like a balefire in the rays of the setting sun.
From Shapes that Haunt the Dusk by William Dean Howells
Like a balefire should the flame go up that says the king is dead.
From Erechtheus A Tragedy (New Edition) by Algernon Charles Swinburne
This word was the last which the wise old man harbored in heart ere hot death-waves of balefire he chose.
From Beowulf by Francis Barton Gummere
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.
