fire away

British

verb

informal (intr, adverb; often imperative) to begin to speak or to ask questions

"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

fire away Idioms

Start to talk or ask questions. For example, You've got more questions? Well, fire away. This expression originated in the 1600s as a military command to discharge firearms and was being transferred to other actions by the late 1700s. Also see fire off.

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:

fire away

However, Mitchell warned crews were "one fire away from a major disaster" if incidents continued.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

So officials built containment lines to keep the fire away from people and the park’s historic buildings and then stepped back to let the flames perform their ancient magic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2025

They managed to keep the fire away from nearby homes, containing it to some empty plots of land.

From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2023

"We kept the fire away from homes," Stathis Topalidis, deputy mayor of Menidi, told state broadcaster ERT on Wednesday.

From Reuters ● Aug. 23, 2023

A light wind was blowing to the west, carrying the muck fire away from us, toward the Gulf.

From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor

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