Word.ws English Dictionary

opening fire

opening fire is the present participle and gerund of open fire.

Meaning of open fire

Verb

open fire (third-person singular simple present opens fire, present participle opening fire, simple past and past participle opened fire)

  1. (idiomatic) To begin firing (weapons) at something or someone.
    • In warfare, whoever opens fire first has a greater chance of victory.

See all 2 meanings of open fire

Questions about opening fire

What is opening fire the present participle and gerund of?
Opening fire is the present participle and gerund of open fire.

Words near opening fire in the dictionary

  1. opening books
  2. opening ceremonies
  3. opening ceremony
  4. opening credits
  5. opening doors
  6. opening fire
  7. opening goal
  8. opening goals
  9. Opening Government
  10. opening gun
  11. opening guns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: opening fire (page history and authors); open 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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Cite this entry: “opening fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/opening_fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.