Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use bonfire in a sentence

32 example sentences · noun, verb

Bonfire means a large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal. Example: “The remains of the bonfire were left to smolder for hours.”

Examples of bonfire by meaning

nounA large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.

  • A number of towns in East Sussex, and on the borders of Kent and Surrey, make a special feature of huge bonfires and torchlight processions with fireworks on Guy Fawkes day or an early November Saturday.1953 January, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes: Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 68

verbTo destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight.

  • I’d bonfire the books, drain the inkwells and bust up the blackboard — if only he would stop hating.1957 November 14, Sputnik [pseudonym], “My Son Hates School”, in Daily Record, number 19,357, Glasgow: Scottish Daily Record and Sunday...
  • In any case, he made a point of bonfiring most of Lane's ideas, especially the liberal ones.1988, Bill James [pseudonym; James Tucker], chapter 24, in Protection, London: Penguin Books, published 1989, →ISBN, page 161
  • 'Thank you, Bruce sweetie,' Victoria said, serenely, the operating light directly behind her bonfiring her hair.2001, Kathy Lette, “Relying on the Kindness of Passing Serial Killers”, in Nip ’n’ Tuck, Sydney, N.S.W.: Picador, →ISBN, page 234

verbTo fire (pottery) using a bonfire.

  • The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.2000, Moira Vincentelli, “Running the Business”, in Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University...
  • Fabricated in the coil and pinch manner of old societies, the work was bonfired—but then a unique treatment was used.2003, Susan Peterson, “The Legacy of Generation: Pottery by Contemporary American Indian Women”, in Susan R. Ressler, editor, Woman Artists...

verbTo make, or celebrate around, a bonfire.

  • Seems as if one day we are all bar-b-quing, swimming, jetskiing, bonfiring, and the next thing you know everyone is gone, leaving the house empty (except for the sad pile of damp towels and a refrigerator full of sloppy Jo's).2014 March 27, Joan Rust, “11.7.10: Spangles and Big C-Burgers”, in Anniecat Chronicles, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 131
  • Before I got out of Josh's car as he dropped me off after Marmalade's that first night, he said they were bonfiring at Shell Shores the next afternoon.2016, Alexandra Sirowy, chapter 4, in The Telling, New York, N.Y.; London: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 36

More sentences with bonfire

  • The remains of the bonfire were left to smolder for hours.From the entry smolder
  • She had second-degree burns from falling in the bonfire.From the entry burn
  • The wood was sparkling in the bonfire.From the entry sparkle
  • The crowd cheered as a firebrand was tossed onto the huge pile of wood to start the traditional homecoming bonfire.From the entry firebrand
  • From the bonfire of last autumn's HS2 decision, there are green shoots pushing through the ashes.2024 April 3, Philip Haigh, “Comment: A new, better version of HS2”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 3. From the entry shoot
  • The event was billed as the “world’s largest bonfire,” drawing thousands to the College Station campus.2024 June 4, Joe Sutton, Dalia Faheid, “Texas A&M will not bring back bonfire tradition after collapse killed 12 in 1999, president says”…. From the entry College Station
  • Groups sit around bonfires to burn old bankruptcy papers and share hobo stew.2017 November 17, Arlie Russell Hochschild, “In ‘Nomadland,’ the Golden Years Are the Wander Years”, in The New York Times Book Review…. From the entry hobo stew
  • On a gapsite between two crumbling tenements a bonfire was blazing and lethal-looking kids galloped around it.2015, Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!, page 197. From the entry gapsite
  • Often, they would throw the animal’s bones onto a roaring bonfire.2012 October 28, David DiSalvo, “Are You or Someone You Know Samhainophobic?”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2014. From the entry Samhain
  • Bonfiring has a very direct contact between the pottery and the flame.2004, Moira Vincentelli, Women Potters: Transforming Traditions, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 212. From the entry bonfiring
  • Our nation has experienced a bonfire of the vanities based on the greed of the high establishment.1991, Proceedings of the AFL-CIO Convention, page 196. From the entry bonfire of the vanities
  • “It seemed the right moment to make a bonfire of the “Vanities,'” says Brown.1991 February 25, Jeannete Walls, “Intelligencer”, in New York Magazine, volume 24, number 8, page 18. From the entry bonfire of the vanities
  • The bonfire night celebrations in Victorian Guildford were a far cry from those familiar to Guildfordians today.1985, Surrey Archaeological Collections. From the entry Guildfordian
  • 'You can't have a bonfire without any wood.2014, Trevor Hoyle, Down the Figure 7, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry bommie
  • Gobbly goblins and ghoulie ghouls throw a dead man's party in the center of me, dancing around the bonfire.2010, Will Aldis, Lily Wyatt, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 109. From the entry ghoulie ghoul
  • They spit children like you and roast them on bonfires."2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 333. From the entry pert
  • Most women's traditions involve open firing such as bonfiring, pitfiring, or a fire surrounded by a low wall.2000, Moira Vincentelli, “Gender, Technology and Technique”, in Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester; New York, N.Y.…. From the entry bonfiring
  • I challenge these geeks to show a little spirit and produce an 81 tier bonfire by Friday night.1978 November 14, Jeff Boylan, “Excerpts”, in Bob Wasserman, editor, The Tech, volume 98, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT, archived from the…. From the entry geek
  • The more inversive, peer-oriented, outdoor activities precede Halloween, while the family gatherings, meal, fireworks, and bonfire all take place on Halloween itself.2015, Jack Santino, The Hallowed Eve: Dimensions of Culture in a Calendar Festival in Northern Ireland, page 140. From the entry inversive
  • At night, they’d build a bonfire, slaughter an animal and then cook it in a bogracs — a pot with a tripod.2005 February 14, Sue Perine O’Reilly, quoting John Soppanish, “Hungary man: Middletown man cooks up ethnic cuisine”, in JournalNews…. From the entry bogracs
  • He made his neighbours' lives a misery earlier this year by staging late-night banger races on the three-acre field where he held the bonfire.2003 November 7, David Sapsted, “Lottery winner puts 40ft mobile home on bonfire”, in The Daily Telegraph. From the entry banger race
  • Bush parties involve a lot of nighttime drinking around a bonfire somewhere out of town, frequently from the back of a half-ton pickup.1990 April, Mark Ginsburg, “Truckin’”, in Vanity Fair, volume 53, New York: Condé Nast, retrieved 21 Jan 2022, page 202. From the entry bush party
  • The local village priest is expected to pass through the Holi bonfire, which, in the opinion of the faithful, cannot burn him.1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 3, page 306. From the entry score
  • Each person took this paper money and dropped it into a huge tin drum which held within it a fierce fire, a bonfire of heavenly money for Tiger’s afterlife.2005, Tash Aw, chapter 6, in The Harmony Silk Factory, New York: Riverhead Books, page 67. From the entry afterlife

Meaning of bonfire

  1. noun A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
  2. noun A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.
  3. noun Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc.

Full definition of bonfire

Questions about bonfire in a sentence

How do you use bonfire in a sentence?
Bonfire is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The remains of the bonfire were left to smolder for hours.”
What is a short sentence with bonfire?
“The wood was sparkling in the bonfire.”
What does bonfire mean?
Bonfire means a large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bonfire (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use bonfire in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/bonfire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.