Word.ws English Dictionary

kicking the tires and lighting the fires

kicking the tires and lighting the fires is the present participle and gerund of kick the tires and light the fires.

Meaning of kick the tires and light the fires

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)

Questions about kicking the tires and lighting the fires

What is kicking the tires and lighting the fires the present participle and gerund of?
Kicking the tires and lighting the fires is the present participle and gerund of kick the tires and light the fires.

Words near kicking the tires and lighting the fires in the dictionary

  1. kicking the bucket
  2. kicking the can down the road
  3. kicking the habit
  4. kicking the shit out of
  5. kicking the tires
  6. kicking the tires and lighting the fires
  7. kicking the tyres
  8. kicking to
  9. kicking to the curb
  10. kicking to the kerb
  11. kicking up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kicking the tires and lighting the fires (page history and authors); 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.

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