fireman
Americannoun
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firemen
plural
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a person employed to extinguish or prevent fires; firefighter.
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a person employed to tend fires; stoker.
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Railroads.
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a person employed to fire and lubricate a steam locomotive.
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a person employed to assist the engineer of a diesel or electric locomotive.
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U.S. Navy. an enlisted person assigned to the care and operation of a ship's machinery.
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British Mining. fire boss.
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Baseball. relief pitcher.
noun
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Gender-neutral form: firefighter. a man who fights fires, usually a public employee or trained volunteer
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(on steam locomotives) the man who stokes the fire and controls the injectors feeding water to the boiler
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(on diesel and electric locomotives) the driver's assistant
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a man who tends furnaces; stoker
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US equivalent: fire boss. Also called: deputy. a mine official responsible for safety precautions
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navy a junior rating who works on marine engineering equipment
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informal any employee who is dispatched to deal with trouble at short notice
Gender
See -man.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fireman
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:
“Forget that one. It’s gone,” they heard one fireman say, referring to their house.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
"So it is!" chimed in an off-duty fireman nearby.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Among them were a former rural mayor, an ex-police commander, a bar owner, a rancher, a fireman and various entrepreneurs associated with mining and construction, industries heavily subject to extortion demands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
"I am profoundly grieved at the loss of this dedicated and gallant fireman," Andy Yeung, director of the fire service said in a statement.
From BBC ● Nov. 26, 2025
The story the fireman told was about a seemingly routine call he had taken years before, when he was a lieutenant.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
In northern Portugal, in Valpacos, nearly 800 firemen were battling a forest fire that was spreading, the civil protection service said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 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
After a nervy 30 minutes, firemen finally freed the parachutist and his chute to big cheers from the crowd.
From BBC ● Apr. 6, 2025
The three remaining Richardson children watched the firemen set down their axes and peel away their smoky yellow coats.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
