fire drill

Noun

fire drill (plural fire drills)

1. An organized practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.
   • There was a fire drill this morning. We had to leave the building calmly and go to the birch tree, our meeting point.

   Synonyms:

   fire practice

2. (US, idiomatic) Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.
   • Since they've changed the standards again, our previous efforts now just amount to a fire drill.

   Synonyms:

   Chinese fire drill, Polish fire drill

3. A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.
   • Near-synonym: firestarter (synonymous in some versions)
   • There is no machine on earth so potent, yet so simple and elegant, as the two sticks of the Native American fire drill;1999, Paul Douglas Campbell, Survival Skills of Native California, →ISBN, page 4

   Synonyms:

   bow drill, firestick, hand drill, pump drill, firestarter