8/7/2023 0 Comments Playing with fire quotes![]() Some other fire idiomsĪ baptism of fire – being pushed into a new place by having to deal with difficult or unexpected circumstances.Did These Fire Quotes Ignite Something In You? In the early 20th century it was used to describe the popping explosions that used to be commonly heard from the exhausts of motor vehicles. That term derives from the tendency of early flintlock weapons to dangerously misfire. These days the term ‘backfire’ is now more often used to mean plans that fail in a way that weren’t intended. However, fire-fighters developed the procedure and foresters now routinely build unplanted areas into forests to act as fire-breaks in places that are at risk of fire. The flames only reached our stable and haystacks the sooner.” ![]() “The more experienced of the neighbours declared there was nothing now but to make a “back-fire!” So home-ward all ran, and set about kindling an opposing serpent which should “swallow up the rest ” but it proved too late. That was the theory, and it worked in some circumstances, but in others it made things worse if their own fires got out of control.Ĭaroline Kirkland’s novel, set on the frontier in Michigan in the 1840s A New Home – Who’ll Follow? describes a spectacular failure of the technique. They developed the technique of deliberately raising controllable fires, which, under control, would destroy the fuel the big fire needed to keep going. In addition to hurricanes, and other devastating natural phenomena they were plagued with forest fires and grass fires. The concept of literally fighting fire with fire goes back to the settlers in America in the 19th century. I had some Havanas with me, and so I lighted one to make an atmosphere for myself: as the trappers on the prairies fight fire with fire, so I fought tobacco with tobacco.”įight fire with fire – almost a Shakespeare phrase Literal meaning of fighting fire with fire ![]() ![]() “Smoking was universal among the men generally cigars, not fine Havanas, but made of Dutch tobacco, and to me not very agreeable. The phrase appears in print, almost certainly for the first time, is in a reminiscence by American writer, Henry Tappan’s reminiscence, A Step from the New World to the Old, and Back Again: The wording fighting fire with fire came much later than Shakespeare’s usage in 1596. To meet displeasure farther from the doors,Īnd grapple with him ere he comes so nigh.”Īct 5, Scene 1 Origin of the idiom ‘fight fire with fire’ What, shall they seek the lion in his den,Īnd fright him there? and make him tremble there? That borrow their behaviors from the great, Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes, Threaten the threatener and outface the brow Let not the world see fear and sad distrustīe stirring as the time be fire with fire “So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew.īut wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?īe great in act, as you have been in thought In The Life and Death of King John the concept is expressed as ‘ be fire with fire.’ Shakespeare uses the phrase ‘fire with fire’ but not as ‘ fight fire with fire.’ It also has a literal meaning as in fire-fighters using fires in combating fires. Although expressed in military terms it can mean other kinds of fighting, which could be competing with someone in an entirely peaceful activity. To fight fire with fire means to respond to an attack by using the same tactic or method as the attacker to fight him (or her). Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. ![]()
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