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Glite Dictionary
to fire away

to fire away

11 5.6
Start asking questions or speaking freely when allowed
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈfaɪər əˈweɪ/
  • Informal
translation icon : preguntar
  • If you have questions on this topic, fire away and we'll ask Nedra to respond.
  • fire away with your questions
  • just fire away
  • so fire away

And then we'll come back and we'll fire away, Don't you think?

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Examples

  • "Fire away, young man," he said.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Le Clown is a capricious spirit, but Eric will answer each and every one of your questions, so fire away!

    Blog text (29)

  • "If you guys have questions, fire away."

    Antitrust (2001)

  • Yeah, sure, fire away.

    God's Not Dead (2014)

  • As long as the same isn't true of you, fire away!

    Blog text (13)

  • After everything you've endured, fire away.

    Blog text (27)

  • "Fire away!" Dad said.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Okay, bud, fire away.

    The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)

  • She freed me up to fire away with the plain old front-porch deliveries, so the route took half the time it usually did.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • If you have any doubts, feel free to fire away with your questions.

Synonyms

to feel free
vsto fire away
159 2.4

You can do something without asking for permission or worrying

asks the other to start talking freely once permission is given
to shoot a question
vsto fire away
  • Informal
1 3.7

To ask a question quickly and directly

invites speaking freely after permission rather than only asking questions

Antonyms

to be quiet
231 1.0

To stop making noise or talking

to hold back
108 4.2

Keep yourself from showing feelings or telling others

Surface Forms

fire away infinitive
fired away past
fired away past participle
firing away present participle
fires away third person singular

Morphology

fire + away

The verb 'fire' is extended metaphorically (like firing shots) and 'away' signals continuous or liberal action, so the sense of launching questions is related to the constituent meanings. However, using 'fire' to mean 'ask/utter rapidly' is a figurative shift that is not fully predictable from the literal senses, so a B1 learner who knows the words may not reliably infer the exact meaning without exposure.

Etymology

Fire away comes from guns: an officer would tell soldiers to fire away when he wanted them to 'shoot' right then. Because it gave clear permission to start, people now say fire away to mean 'begin' or 'ask questions' freely.