foxfire

Noun

foxfire (usually uncountable, plural foxfires)

1. (US, usually) Bioluminescence created by some types of fungus, particularly those growing on rotting wood.
   • The foxfire,—as the country people call it,—glowed hideously from the cold and matted bosom of the marsh; and, far from us, in the depths of darkness, the screech-owl sat upon his perch, brooding over the slimy pool, and whooping out a dismal curfew, that fell upon the ear like the cries of a...1832, Mark Littleton [pseudonym; John Pendleton Kennedy], “The Goblin Swamp”, in Swallow Barn, or A Sojourn in the Old Dominion. In Two Volumes, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey & Lea, […], →OCLC...
   • Perhaps you've seen a foxfire in the woods. Well, in the dark, it looks like a live, burning coal; but when you go to it, and take it up, it's only a piece of rotten wood.1874 June, Philip Quilibet, “Drift-wood. A Famous Evangelist.”, in The Galaxy. […], volume XVII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Sheldon & Co., →OCLC, page 842, column 2

   Synonyms:

   chimpanzee fire, fairy fire

2. (broadly, usually) Wood exhibiting fungal bioluminescence; torchwood.
   • On the inside is fixed a Barometer, by which he can tell the depth he is under water; a Compass, by which he knows the course he steers. In the barometer and on the needles of the compass is fixed fox-fire, i.e. wood that gives light in the dark.1775 November 9, Henry L[arcom] Abbot, quoting Benjamin Gale, “Description of the American Turtle. [Dr. Benjamin Gale to Silas Deane, Esq., Killingsworth, Nov. 9, 1775.]”, in The Beginning of Modern...
   • The navigator steered by a rudder, the tiller of which was passed through the back of the machine at a water joint, and in one side was fixed a small pocket compass, with two pieces of shining wood, (sometimes called foxfire,) crossed upon its north point, and a single piece upon the last point. In...1820 February 21, Charles Griswold, “Art. [IX].—Description of a Machine, Invented and Constructed by David Bushnell, a Native of Saybrook, at the Commencement of the American Revolutionary War, for...