Definition of Fire drill
1. Noun. An exercise intended to train people in duties and escape procedures to be followed in case of fire.
Definition of Fire drill
1. Noun. An organised practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire. ¹
2. Noun. (idiomatic) any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity (sometimes '''Chinese fire drill''', but this usage is becoming outmoded in an age of political correctness) ¹
3. Noun. (idiomatic) any chaotic, unexpected activity. (With the dropping of '''Chinese''' the phrase has also often lost its pejorative meaning of pointless and unproductive. In this way, ''fire drill'' is often used in the same idiomatic way ''putting out fires'' or ''fire fighting'' is used.) ¹
4. Noun. A rod which is rotated on a flat surface like a drill until it is hot enough to start a fire. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Fire Drill Pictures
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Lexicographical Neighbors of Fire Drill
Literary usage of Fire drill
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Journal by New York (N.Y.). Board of Education (1854)
"fire drill LAW CHAPTER 201, LAWS OF 1901 AN ACT PROVIDING FOR fire drillS IN THE SCHOOLS Of THIS STATE Became a law, March 27, 1901, with the approval of ..."
2. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan by Asiatic Society of Japan (1888)
"The Japanese Museum at Yedo (Haku-butsu-kuwait) possesses a copy of part of the archaic apparatus for kindling fire, called by archaeologists fire-drill, ..."
3. American Anthropologist by American Anthropological Association (1890)
"One of these was a model of a Hindoo sacred fire-drill, sent from Oxford Museum to the United States National Museum by Mr. Henry Balfour. ..."
4. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Fire was obtained by means of the fire drill. Houses and much of their portable handiwork were adorned with native paint. They had the clan system, ..."
5. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language by Franciscans, St. Michaels, Ariz (1910)
"The fire-drill (wolli), consisting of ... Fire-Drill. Tax POKERS, CEREMONIAL UNRAVELING OF ... Firedrill ..."
6. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"Thus the modern Hindu, though using civilised means for lighting his household fire, retains the savage "fire-drill" for obtaining fire by friction of wood ..."
7. Museums Journal by Museums Association (1903)
"fire drill IN MUSEUMS.—In how many museums is there a regular fire-drill of the staff? In how many does each member of the staff know what to do, ..."
8. The North-Americans of Yesterday: A Comparative Study of North-American by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh (1900)
"This was the common form of fire- drill throughout the continent. The " new-fire" of the Aztecs,' produced at the termination of their fifty-two-year cycle, ..."