bonfire
English · Thesaurus
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bonfire
- /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/
- [ˈbɒɱˌfaɪ̯ɚ]
- /ˈbɒnfaɪə/ UK
- /ˈbɑnˌfaɪɚ/ US
- [ˈb̥ɒ̃ɱfaɛ̯ɚ]
Where it comes from
PIE word
*péh₂wr̥
From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).
noun bonfires · burnfire · bonefire · boanefier · bonefier · beane fyre
-
A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
O thou art a perpetuall triumph, an euerlaſting bonefire light, […]
Similar: bale
- A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish. [A]ll the inhabitauntes confortynge and exhortynge eche other to die, rather than to violate the leage and amitie that they of longe tyme had contynued with the Romaynes, by one hole assent, after that they hadde made sondry great pyles of wode and of other mater to brenne, they layde in it all thei
- Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc. And one thing I like in you, novv that you ſee / The bonefire of your Ladies ſtate burnt out, / You give it over, doe you not?
-
A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.
The bodies which the plague had ſlaine were (O moſt wretched caſe) / Not caried forth to buriall now. For why ſuch ſtore there was / That ſcarce the gates were wyde inough for Coffins forth to paſſe. / So eyther lothly on the ground vnburied did they lie, / Or elſe without ſolemnitie were burnt in b
Similar: bale
verb bonfires · bonfiring · bonfired · burnfire · bonefire
- To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight. [L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning.
- To fire (pottery) using a bonfire. The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.
- To start a bonfire in (a place); to light up (a place) with a bonfire. They almost carried him [the king] into the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired.
- To make, or celebrate around, a bonfire. [W]hen the news of the battle of Lissa came even to our remote quarter of Ireland, we considered it as a triumph for the cause of Protestantism, and illuminated, and bonfired, and had a sermon at church, and kept the Prussian king's birthday, on which my uncle would get drunk, as indeed on any other
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: balefire, blaze, pyre, torch, burning, fire, fireplace, campfire, furnace, lamp, flashlight, flare, stake, hutch, light, inferno
Translations
Every language
noun large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal
| Español | fogata, fogón |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 구화 guhwa, 모닥불 modakbul, 화톳불 hwatotbul |
| 日本語 | 焚き火 takibi, たき火 takibi, 篝火 kagaribi, かがり火 kagaribi |
| 中文 | 篝火 gōuhuǒ |
| हिन्दी | अलाव alāv |
| Português | fogueira |
| Français | feu de joie |
| Deutsch | Freudenfeuer |
| Italiano | falò |
| Română | foc de tabără |
| Русский | костёр kostjór |
| Tiếng Việt | đống lửa, lửa mừng |
| العربية | مَشْعَل mašʕal |
| עברית | מְדוּרָה medurá |
Talk about this word "bonfire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/bonfire. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. bonfire. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/bonfire "bonfire." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/bonfire.Cite this
@misc{bonfire_2026,
title = {bonfire},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/bonfire},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
