Word.ws English Dictionary

spitfire

spitfire noun: a cannon.

Noun (1)

spitfire (plural spitfires)

  1. A cannon.
  2. (figuratively) A person with a fiery temper, someone easily provoked to anger, especially a woman or girl.
    • "―But however provoked, are your scribbling spitfires never to be satisfied?"1801, Peter Viereck, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin., Volume ⅩⅠⅠⅠ, by John Nichols (arranged by Thomas Sheridan), p. 143, published in London
    • The young imp had been prepared for immediate flight the instant anyone appeared, but for some reason Won Chou's not very aggressive behest must have conveyed a peculiarly galling insult for its effect was to transform the wary gamin into a bristling little spitfire, who hurled back the accumulated...1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
    Synonyms:
    shitfire
  3. A larva of the spitfire sawfly, Perga affinis.

Noun (2) capitalized: Spitfire

Spitfire (plural Spitfires)

  1. (historical) A single-seat fighter used by the RAF and allies during World War II, especially during the Battle of Britain.

spitfire meaning in Tamil and Bengali

spitfire in Tamil

சிடுமூஞ்சி

spitfire in Bengali

রাগী, তেজস্বী ব্যক্তি

Synonyms of spitfire

Forms of spitfire

pluralspitfires
pluralSpitfires

Plural of spitfire: spitfires

Origin of spitfire

Deverbal from spit fire.

Phrases with spitfire

Questions about spitfire

What does spitfire mean?
Spitfire means a cannon.
What is spitfire in Tamil?
Spitfire in Tamil is சிடுமூஞ்சி. See Spitfire meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spitfire?
Spitfire is a noun.
What is the plural of spitfire?
The plural of spitfire is spitfires.

Words near spitfire in the dictionary

  1. Spiteri
  2. Spiteris
  3. spiters
  4. spites
  5. spitesome
  6. spitfire
  7. spitfires
  8. spitful
  9. spitfuls
  10. Spithaler
  11. spithamai

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spitfire (page history and authors); Spitfire (page history and authors); spitfire (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spitfire (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spitfire.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Spitfire.wav.

Cite this entry: “spitfire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spitfire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.