Word.ws English Dictionary

Kentish fire

Kentish fire noun: an expression of emotion from an audience, either of approbation or derision; cheers; jeering.

Noun

Kentish fire (uncountable)

  1. An expression of emotion from an audience, either of approbation or derision; cheers; jeering.
    • The entry of the professor was signalled by a few rounds of Kentish fire from the heavy boots of those students who sat on the highest tier of the gloomy theatre under the grey cobwebbed windows.1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC

Origin of Kentish fire

In reference to meetings held in Kent that opposed the Catholic Emancipation Bill.

Questions about Kentish fire

What does Kentish fire mean?
Kentish fire means an expression of emotion from an audience, either of approbation or derision; cheers; jeering.
What part of speech is Kentish fire?
Kentish fire is a noun.

Words near Kentish fire in the dictionary

  1. Kenticisms
  2. kenting
  3. Kentisbeare
  4. Kentisbury
  5. Kentish
  6. Kentish fire
  7. Kentish glories
  8. Kentish glory
  9. Kentish plover
  10. Kentish plovers
  11. Kentish rag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kentish fire (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.

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