fire watching
- noun
- Archaic
:
vigilancia de incendios
- During the Blitz, many civilians participated in fire watching to protect their neighborhoods from incendiary bombs.
Examples
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The duties of fire watching included reporting and extinguishing small fires on rooftops.
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During World War II, fire watching was essential for safety.
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My grandmother often shares stories about her nights spent fire watching during the war.
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The volunteers participated in fire watching during the war.
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During the Blitz, many civilians participated in fire watching to protect their neighborhoods from incendiary bombs.
-
My grandmother often shares stories about her nights spent fire watching during the war.
-
The duties of fire watching included reporting and extinguishing small fires on rooftops.
How Vigilant
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase 'fire watching' is directly compositional: 'fire' (burning) plus 'watch' (to keep watch) yields the activity of watching for fires, with the -ing form signaling the activity. This construction follows a clear and common pattern (verb/gerund as an activity modifier of a noun) so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Fire watching comes from World War II Britain, when people stayed on roofs at night to watch for small bombs that started fires and to put them out. So fire watching joins fire and watching and means 'keeping watch for fires'.