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

He volunteered at the Poppy Line heritage railway, as a fireman and later station master, and led ramblers' walks across Norfolk.

From BBC ● May 6, 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 tore off his hoodie and pulled his T-shirt over his head and tossed it to the fireman.

From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin

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

A wisely managed retirement plan for cops and firemen is shaken down to shrink a deficit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 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

"Everybody just wanted to be firemen because we were brought up with it all the time... everything was involved around the fire brigade."

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026

Within minutes, some twenty-five firemen arrived and, using axes and other tools, cut their way into the firehouse.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

• firefighter