Word.ws English Dictionary

set the Thames on fire

set the Thames on fire verb: to achieve something amazing but to a nearly-impossible degree; to do something which brings great public acclaim.

Verb

set the Thames on fire (third-person singular simple present sets the Thames on fire, present participle setting the Thames on fire, simple past and past participle set the Thames on fire)

  1. (idiomatic) To achieve something amazing but to a nearly-impossible degree; to do something which brings great public acclaim.
    • The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him.1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as...
    • They intend to send a wire / To the moon — to the moon; / And they'll set the Thames on fire / Very soon — very soon1884, WS Gilbert, ‘Princess Ida’, The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, Oxford University Press, published 1996, page 491

set the Thames on fire meaning in Hindi and Vietnamese

set the Thames on fire in Hindi

to achieve something amazing
अनोखा काम करना anokhā kām karnā

set the Thames on fire in Vietnamese

to achieve something amazing
long trời lở đất, kinh thiên động địa, thành công rực rỡ

Examples of set the Thames on fire in a sentence

  • I fancy it was then you really set the Thames on fire.1925, GK Chesterton, “The Ultimate Ultimatum of the League of the Long Bow”, in The Collected Works, Ignatius Press, published 2005, page...
  • My head is spinning round / my heart is in my shoes, yeah / I went and set the Thames on fire, oh / now I must come back down.1985, Tom Waits, “Anywhere I Lay My Head”:

Synonyms of set the Thames on fire

Forms of set the Thames on fire

third-person singular presentsets the Thames on fire
present participlesetting the Thames on fire
past participleset the Thames on fire
pastset the Thames on fire

Origin of set the Thames on fire

Unknown. Suggested to derive from a misconstrual of temse (“sieve”): thus, to work so vigorously as to heat a sieve by friction. Alternatively, a reference to lightning strikes which sometimes occurred along the Thames, occasionally setting trees on fire or causing death in unusual manner. Otherwise simply by hyperbole, from the improbability of setting a river on fire (although the image might sound like a familiar reference to the Great London fire of 1666).

Questions about set the Thames on fire

What does set the Thames on fire mean?
Set the Thames on fire means to achieve something amazing but to a nearly-impossible degree; to do something which brings great public acclaim.
What is set the Thames on fire in Hindi?
Set the Thames on fire in Hindi is अनोखा काम करना (anokhā kām karnā). See Set the Thames on fire meaning in Hindi.
How do you use set the Thames on fire in a sentence?
I fancy it was then you really set the Thames on fire.
What part of speech is set the Thames on fire?
Set the Thames on fire is a verb.
What is the past tense of set the Thames on fire?
The past tense of set the Thames on fire is set the Thames on fire.

Words near set the Thames on fire in the dictionary

  1. set the pace
  2. set the record straight
  3. set the scene
  4. set the stage
  5. set the table
  6. set the Thames on fire
  7. set the tone
  8. set the wheels in motion
  9. set the world ablaze
  10. set the world afire
  11. set the world aflame

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set the Thames on 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-set the Thames on fire.ogg.

Cite this entry: “set the Thames on fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/set_the_thames_on_fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.