Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Fire burning in the night.
  • noun Ignis fatuus; will-o'-the-wisp.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Time was when I had my own wickiup, when I lay by my own night-fire and played with the braids of a woman's hair, -- long black braids, bound with crimson silk and heavy with ornaments, for whose buying I paid my year's catch, when I looked into eyes black as the woods at night and dumb with the great love she could not speak ....

    The Maid of the Whispering Hills

  • The shafts of night-fire played round and above their secret tent in space ....

    A Prisoner in Fairyland Algernon Blackwood 1910

  • As Pete hardened to the saddle and Blue Smoke hardened to the trail, they traveled faster and farther each day, until, on the Blue Mesa, where the pony grazed and Pete squatted beside his night-fire in the open, they were but a half-day's journey from the Concho.

    The Ridin' Kid from Powder River Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • The men, grouped around the night-fire, smoked and helped the tale along with reminiscent suggestions and ejaculations of interest and curiosity.

    Sundown Slim Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • As they toiled up the stream toward the camp, Winthrop recalled their former chats by the night-fire.

    Overland Red A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • A mile, two miles, three miles, and the night-fire of Arguilla's men was a flickering dot against the black wall of the night.

    The Ridin' Kid from Powder River Henry Herbert Knibbs 1909

  • First I tried to establish a plane of common citizenship with him, by telling him how much his two years 'friendship across the waters had meant to me, while we studied the same profession under the same masters, drew at the same drawing-boards and watched dear old Paris flame into her jeweled night-fire from Montmarte, together.

    The Tinder-Box Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

  • In one of the two rooms making the hut, there were always the ashes of the night-fire, without which negroes could not sleep in comfort.

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • In one of the two rooms making the hut, there were always the ashes of the night-fire, without which negroes could not sleep in comfort.

    No Defense, Volume 3. Gilbert Parker 1897

  • In one of the two rooms making the hut, there were always the ashes of the night-fire, without which negroes could not sleep in comfort.

    No Defense, Complete Gilbert Parker 1897

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