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fire escape

See more synonyms for fire escape on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an apparatus or structure used to escape from a burning building, as a metal stairway down an outside wall.
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Origin of fire escape

First recorded in 1670–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for fire escape

Historical Examples

  • The height from the ground was too great for him to jump down, and no fire-escape was yet in sight.

    Sue, A Little Heroine

    L. T. Meade

  • Fortunately, the fire-escape had not had his seven-and-six-pence: that was so much saved.

    The Bill-Toppers

    Andre Castaigne

  • An' we're goin' upstairs to hunt up a fire-escape,' I told him.

  • The arrow pointing to the fire-escape seemed full of menace.

    The Flaw in the Sapphire

    Charles M. Snyder

  • Like some of those in the shipwreck, she did not at first believe in the fire-escape.

    The Thorogood Family

    R.M. Ballantyne

British Dictionary definitions for fire escape

fire escape

noun
  1. a means of evacuating people from a building in the event of fire, esp a metal staircase outside the building
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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