firebug
firebug noun: pyrrhocoris apterus, a common red and black insect, that is the type species of the family Pyrrhocoridae.
Noun
firebug (plural firebugs)
- Pyrrhocoris apterus, a common red and black insect, that is the type species of the family Pyrrhocoridae.
- A pyromaniac or arsonist.
- But the firebug allegedly ran back inside yelling before he finally took off.2024 August 9, Gabriella Bass, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Joe Marino, “Firebug accused of torching NYC building, injuring 9 is freed without bail, back in neighborhood”, in New York Post
- In the video, she can be heard explaining to the firebugs that she has been working with victims of the wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate.2025 January 12, Jared Downing, “TikToker captures careless idiots releasing lantern balloons on Southern California beach as LA burns: ‘ Do you even know what’s happening?’”, in New York Post
Forms of firebug
| plural | firebugs |
|---|
Origin of firebug
From fire + bug.
Questions about firebug
- What does firebug mean?
- Firebug means pyrrhocoris apterus, a common red and black insect, that is the type species of the family Pyrrhocoridae.
- What part of speech is firebug?
- Firebug is a noun.
- What is the plural of firebug?
- The plural of firebug is firebugs.
Words near firebug in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: firebug (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-firebug.ogg.
Cite this entry: “firebug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/firebug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.