start a fire
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The submarine vanished on November 15, 2017 after reporting that seawater had entered the ventilation system, causing a battery on the vessel to short-circuit and start a fire.
From Barron's • Mar. 4, 2026
“Now everything is so wet it is hard to even start a fire with wood,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2025
“It is kind of a dry lightning setup where you get the lightning that could start a fire but not the rain that would put it out,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2025
"We get wood, start a fire, make dough, put it into portions, let it rise. This is what we're doing now. This process takes at least three hours," she says.
From BBC • Feb. 27, 2024
One of the pilots had used a watch crystal as a magnifying glass to focus the sun and start a fire so they didn’t have to eat the lizards raw.
From "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen
