to light a fire under
7
6.7
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
motivar
- With your connections to the wind industry, perhaps you can light a fire under their asses when it comes to turbine life, because that would make a huge difference.
- light a fire under your ass
- light a fire under your butt
It's not that we want to walk away simply with the intention of lighting a fire under them.
- It's not that we want to walk away simply with the intention of lighting a fire under them.
- How are you messaging these people, lighting a fire under their ass, trying to get them pumped up and on a new, better trajectory?
- And So what is actually normal of her to do is to break a racket to basically light a fire under herself.
Examples
-
Seeing her friend's success lit a fire under her to pursue her dreams.
-
When they said that, it kind of lit a fire under me.
Blog text (13) -
And that one reply just lit a fire under me.
Blog text (22) -
Let's really light a fire under these deadbeats.
-
A campaign based on civic pride gradually "lit a fire" under the council members.
Academic text (1992) -
It's good for the youngsters and hopefully will light a fire under their butts for the future.
Blog text (15) -
I've always dreamed of doing mission work, and this lit a fire under me to seek out exactly what it is that God has in mind for me.
Blog text (33) -
The coach's speech really lit a fire under the team to perform their best.
-
The deadline for the project finally lit a fire under him to start working.
Synonyms
177
4.3
To make feelings, arguments or actions stronger
70
4.1
Make people feel excited and ready to act
47
4.4
To cause strong feelings in someone
45
4.7
To make someone want to do something
39
6.7
To make people feel shocked and excited so they act
26
4.2
Make a situation more urgent to force someone to act
1
5.4
To add fuel to a fire or make energy and excitement stronger
1
5.0
Make someone feel very excited and interested in something
Make people more interested and eager about something
Antonyms
How Motivating
39
6.7
- Informal
7
6.7
591
3.2
437
3.5
∞
2.3
∞
1.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase maps a physical image (light + fire + under) onto a motivational pressure: a learner who knows 'light', 'fire', and 'under' can plausibly infer it means to spur or pressure someone into action, but the sense is metaphorical rather than strictly compositional. The nuance of creating urgency or sustained push is not fully predictable from the parts alone, and the construction relies on a figurative mapping common in some languages but not universally literal, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Light a fire under comes from the image of putting a real fire under a pot to make it heat and boil faster. So, 'to light a fire under' someone means 'to make them work harder or act faster'.