noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of campfire
Explanation
A campfire is a small fire that you build when you're camping. A campfire is good for cooking food, boiling water, or warming your hands. Most boy and girl scouts learn how to build a campfire, which is useful when you're hiking or camping overnight. A campfire is perfect for toasting hot dogs and marshmallows, heating water for hot chocolate, and for sitting nearby when you tell ghost stories after dark. It's important to make sure a campfire is completely extinguished before you leave your camp site.
Vocabulary lists containing campfire
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.
See Examples For:
The film got three stars from Tim Robey, external at The Telegraph, who notes the film's "action interludes are more nonsensical than scary" and "provide momentary dumb fun when Scott's campfire apocalypse needs waking up".
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
This film is not merely glittering debris, as some have posited, nor is it style over substance; it’s a campfire story told by Thatcher’s unearthly orator.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
Within weeks Masino pulled a U-turn, dumping the new logo, dropping the marketing firm behind it and pausing restaurant remodels, bringing back proven sellers like campfire meals and ham dinners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
A fire which burned for more than 40 days on moorland was likely to have been caused by someone cooking using a campfire or gas burner, an investigation has found.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026
I’m above the campfire, the bushes, even Belle.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
People are advised to take home litter, avoid smoking and using barbecues, and not to light campfires or bonfires.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Maine’s camp culture combines rustic canoe trips and campfires with a polished social ecosystem that brings convoys of black SUVs to the state every summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
If campfires are allowed, you must still secure a free campfire permit and have a copy with you.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2025
In Northern California, fire-evacuation “go bags” are normal, campfires are essentially a thing of the past, and even people living outside take fire risks seriously.
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2024
Dog-headed men prowled in packs, their poleaxes gleaming in the light of campfires.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
