Word.ws English Dictionary

put out a fire

put out a fire verb: to address a problem, especially an unexpected one caused by the incompetence, negligence, or misconduct of another person.

Verb

put out a fire (third-person singular simple present puts out a fire, present participle putting out a fire, simple past and past participle put out a fire)

  1. (idiomatic) To address a problem, especially an unexpected one caused by the incompetence, negligence, or misconduct of another person.
    • The manager had to put out the fire after a raw hamburger was served to a customer.
    • Laporta is getting fed up with putting out all the fires that keep emerging around the club every time Koeman opens his mouth, while the Dutchman, protected by a bulletproof contract, is probably thinking 'as you sow, so shall you reap', and only just resisting adding the phrase: "Come on then...2021 September 22, Guillem Balagué, “Barcelona: The toxic battle ripping apart a European giant”, in BBC Sport
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: put out a fire.

Forms of put out a fire

third-person singular presentputs out a fire
present participleputting out a fire
past participleput out a fire
pastput out a fire
alternative formput out the fire

Questions about put out a fire

What does put out a fire mean?
Put out a fire means to address a problem, especially an unexpected one caused by the incompetence, negligence, or misconduct of another person.
What part of speech is put out a fire?
Put out a fire is a verb.
What is the past tense of put out a fire?
The past tense of put out a fire is put out a fire.

Words near put out a fire in the dictionary

  1. put oneself out of the way
  2. put onto
  3. put option
  4. put options
  5. put out
  6. put out a fire
  7. put out feelers
  8. put out of one's head
  9. put out of one's mind
  10. put out the fire
  11. put out to grass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put out a 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put out a fire.ogg.

Cite this entry: “put out a fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_out_a_fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.