dead firing

American  

noun

1. firing of a furnace or boiler at less than normal operating temperature in order to maintain conditions desirable during a period of idleness.

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Example Sentences

Citing a passage from “The Shining Brow,” the 1960 book by Wright’s widow, Olgivanna, in which her husband damns the Seagram’s Building with faint praise, Howard writes: “With Mrs. Wright’s help, the Master returned from the dead, firing a pointed bon mot that Philip Johnson knew perfectly well was aimed in his direction.”

From Washington Post