fireman

American  

[fahyuhr-muhn] / ˈfaɪər mən /

noun

• firemen
  plural

1. a person employed to extinguish or prevent fires; firefighter.

2. a person employed to tend fires; stoker.

3. Railroads.

   1. a person employed to fire and lubricate a steam locomotive.

   2. a person employed to assist the engineer of a diesel or electric locomotive.

4. U.S. Navy. an enlisted person assigned to the care and operation of a ship's machinery.

5. British Mining. fire boss.

6. Baseball. relief pitcher.

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fireman British  

/ ˈfaɪəmən /

noun

1. Gender-neutral form: firefighter.  a man who fights fires, usually a public employee or trained volunteer

2. 1. (on steam locomotives) the man who stokes the fire and controls the injectors feeding water to the boiler

   2. (on diesel and electric locomotives) the driver's assistant

3. a man who tends furnaces; stoker

4. US equivalent: fire boss.  Also called: deputy.  a mine official responsible for safety precautions

5. navy a junior rating who works on marine engineering equipment

6. informal any employee who is dispatched to deal with trouble at short notice

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Gender

See -man.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• firemen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fireman

1620–30 for sense “gunner”; fire + -man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fireman firemen

"So it is!" chimed in an off-duty fireman nearby.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

Replete with Constructivist angles, it’s an unsentimental account of a woman who tells her fireman husband he isn’t the father of their newborn.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025

Once again, he is both arsonist and fireman.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2025

He loaded up his car with personal belongings, then used the techniques he’d learned as a fireman to protect his family home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025

And I became a public relations man for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, and a volunteer fireman in the village of Alplaus, where I bought my first home.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Nearly 800 firemen have been deployed to the major fire in Valpacos which has left at least five people lightly injured.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

Volunteer firemen is a tradition as old as the nation, but fewer young people are signing up to do the job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

In the Nashville airport, he found himself alongside a group of firemen heading to Oklahoma to help with the rescue.

From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2026

"I always felt like I was surrounded by such incredible people, lifeguards that were also firemen or firewomen. It was really, really, empowering."

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2025

Behind her, one of the firemen placed the charred remnants of the jerry can into the truck—to send to the insurance company, she had no doubt.

From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Related Words

• firefighter