incendiary
1
8.5
- noun
- /ɪnˈsɛndiˌɛri/
- Specialized
:
artefacto incendiario
- Then, ten days later, in the evening, the British struck the German city of Dresden with 2,700 tons of bombs, half of them incendiaries.
- drop an incendiary
- bombs and incendiaries
Examples
-
A stray Fokker came over the treetops... and dropped an incendiary on the mess tent.
-
Metal incendiaries pose special problems.
Blog text (17) -
Like other metal incendiaries, they must be removed.
Blog text (17) -
Greek fire incendiary weapons were not a novelty.
-
You must learn to protect yourself against these incendiaries.
Blog text (17) -
She saw gunflashes over the East End and a big blazing fire set by incendiaries.
Fiction book (1994) -
On February 25, his bombers showered incendiaries on one square mile of Tokyo, destroying some 28,000 buildings.
Academic text (2005) -
In the first raid, 334 planes dropped 1,667 tons of incendiaries from 7,000 feet, destroying fifteen square miles of the Japanese capital.
Fiction book (1990) -
The military used incendiary bombs to target the enemy's supply lines, causing widespread destruction.
-
After the attack, the city was left in ruins, with numerous buildings destroyed by incendiary devices.
Synonyms
9
8.1
A bottle filled with liquid and a rag people light and throw to start fires
7
6.6
A bomb that starts fires, often used against buildings or fuel
6
7.3
A weapon made to start fires using chemicals
1
6.3
A bomb that starts fires to burn buildings or fuel
1
7.4
A simple weapon that uses a bottle of gasoline and a cloth wick to start fires
A weapon that sprays flammable liquid into the air then sets it on fire to make a large explosion
Compounds
How Destructive
- Offensive
24
9.6
- Offensive
7
6.6
- Specialized
1
8.5
55
4.3
- US
1
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
incendiary = incendi + ary
Literally related to 'cause fire' via the stem 'incendi-' + '-ary', but because the stem is not a common English base the device sense is not fully predictable for learners.
Etymology
Incendiary for a bomb comes from the Latin incendere 'to set on fire', the same root as the word incense (something you burn). So an incendiary device is made to start fires and burn things.