Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌲 Cleared land strip 🦠 Short lockdown
firebreak

firebreak

1 7.0
A short, planned lockdown to slow how a disease spreads between people
  • noun
  • /ˈfaɪərˌbreɪk/
  • Literature
translation icon : cortafuegos
  • During the outbreak, citizens were required to follow the firebreak measures set by health officials.

Examples

  • A local firebreak was implemented in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.

  • - Yeah, to make a firebreak.

    In Old Chicago (1938)

  • The geostrategic firebreak in Asia, separating communist and noncommunist countries, was being agonizingly redrawn.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The government announced a temporary firebreak to control the spread of the virus in the region.

How Strict

lockdown
112 4.2
firebreak
  • Literature
1 7.0
restriction
340 3.0
recommendation
553 2.5
advisory
  • Literature
108 4.3

Surface Forms

firebreak singular
firebreaks plural

Morphology

firebreak = fire + break (semi-transparent) = fire + break

Metaphorical extension: 'fire' stands for rapid spread (of disease) and 'break' for interruption; the analogy is clear but requires mapping 'fire' to epidemic spread.

Etymology

Firebreak is also used for a short lockdown by borrowing the idea of the land term: fire + break, where break means 'a gap' or 'to stop', so a policy called a firebreak is a planned pause to slow the 'fire' of an illness spreading.