Word.ws English Dictionary

kick the tires and light the fires

kick the tires and light the fires verb: to take off.

Verb

kick the tires and light the fires (third-person singular simple present kicks the tires and lights the fires, present participle kicking the tires and lighting the fires, simple past and past participle kicked the tires and lit the fires)

  1. (US, slang) To take off.
    • His face appears in the open window of the pilot's seat on the flight deck. He is ready. I am ready. It's time to kick the tires and light the fires.1998, Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty (2000 Random House edition), p. 108 (Google preview)

Forms of kick the tires and light the fires

third-person singular presentkicks the tires and lights the fires
present participlekicking the tires and lighting the fires
past participlekicked the tires and lit the fires
pastkicked the tires and lit the fires

Origin of kick the tires and light the fires

From kick the tires, referring to a preflight check of the landing gear, and light the fires, referring to the ignition of the afterburners, a part of the engine which burns extra fuel for a speed boost.

Questions about kick the tires and light the fires

What does kick the tires and light the fires mean?
Kick the tires and light the fires means to take off.
What part of speech is kick the tires and light the fires?
Kick the tires and light the fires is a verb.
What is the past tense of kick the tires and light the fires?
The past tense of kick the tires and light the fires is kicked the tires and lit the fires.

Words near kick the tires and light the fires in the dictionary

  1. kick the can
  2. kick the can down the road
  3. kick the habit
  4. kick the shit out of
  5. kick the tires
  6. kick the tires and light the fires
  7. kick the tyres
  8. kick the wheels
  9. kick to
  10. kick to kick
  11. kick to kicks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick the tires and light the fires (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:

Cite this entry: “kick the tires and light the fires.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick_the_tires_and_light_the_fires. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.