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watch fire

noun
  1. a fire maintained during the night as a signal and for providing light and warmth for guards.
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Origin of watch fire

First recorded in 1795–1805
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for watch fire

Historical Examples

  • The Arab figures and conversation round the watch-fire were romantic enough.

    Byeways in Palestine

    James Finn

  • The watch-fire is out to-night,—the first night in eight months.

  • Your face has flitted out of my watch-fire, and then I have been a haunted man.

    Anna the Adventuress

    E. Phillips Oppenheim

  • Then there was but one red glare in the night, the watch-fire by the dûn.

  • Southward, some one had evidently built a watch-fire on the beach.

British Dictionary definitions for watch fire

watch fire

noun
  1. a fire kept burning at night as a signal or for warmth and light by a person keeping watch
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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