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:
He’s just some mud-brown monstrosity roaming the Vale of Arryn and treating livestock like campfire marshmallows.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
As visuals go, “undertone” is so far removed from anything resembling the cinematic experience that I left with a fresh appreciation for campfire storytelling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 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
Thomas knew early on that the show, which portrays solved crimes in a whodunit format, should feel like storytelling around a campfire, according to senior producer Vince Sherry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Dirty from camping, with his rubber boots covered in mud and his wool shirt smelling like campfire, Voight pulled Crandell aside.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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
The Cairngorms National Park Authority has urged people not to light campfires and barbecues.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
The public is urged to be cautious with potential sources of ignition such as fireworks, cigarette butts, campfires and machinery sparks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 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
Once I thought there are no campfires and no holes but something else, too hard for me to understand.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
