[f. FIRE sb. + BALL sb.1]
1. A ball of fire or flame; applied esp. to certain large luminous meteors, and to lightning in a globular form.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 250. The fyer baule or starre commonly cauled saynt Helen which is sumtyme seene abowt the mastes of shyppes, beinge of fuche fyery nature that it sumetyme melteth brasen vesselles, and is a token of drownyng, forasmuch as this chaunceth only in great tempestes.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., 616/2. There was such a tempest & thunder with great firebals of lightning, that the vault of the Church brake, and halfe the Chancell was carried away.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, I.
| I go to prove my soul!… | |
| I ask not: but unless God send his hail | |
| Or blinding fire-balls, sleet, or stifling snow. |
1862. Tyndall, Mountaineer., i. 8. Sometimes the lightning seems to burst, like a fireball, midway between the horizon and the zenith, spreading as a vast glory behind the clouds and revealing all their outlines.
1883. H. A. Newton in Encycl. Brit., XVI. 108/1. Another class of luminous meteors known as shooting or falling stars, fireballs, bolides, &c., have their place in the upper parts of the atmosphere.
1888. P. G. Tait, ibid., XXIII. 330/1. The most mysterious phenomenon is what goes by the name of ‘globe-lightning’ or ‘fire-ball,’ a phenomenon lasting sometimes for several seconds, and therefore of a totally differnt character from that of any other form of lightning.
2. Mil. A ball filled with combustible or explosive materials, used as a projectile, either to damage the enemy by explosion or to set fire to their works.
1595. Barnfield, Cassandra, xli.
| Stately Ilion (whose proud-reared wals | |
| Seem’d to controule the cloudes, till Vulcan darted | |
| Against their Tower his burning fier-bals. |
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIV. iv. 249. The slingers and archers together, with others also tumbling downe huge stones, with firebrands and fireballs [malleolis], set them further off.
1684. Scanderbeg Rediv., v. 120. They shot above 2000 Cannon Bullets into the Town, and 500 Fireballs.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl., Fire balls are bags of canvas filled with gunpowder, sulphur, saltpetre, pitch, &c.
1841. M. Elphinstone, The History of India, I. 505. During the heat of the attack which was made on him, a fire-ball struck the rája’s elephant, and the terrified animal bore its master off the field, and could not be stopped until it had plunged into the neighbouring river.
b. fig.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, xxv. 390. A soft Answer pacifieth much Wrath, but virulent Speeches are a fire-ball tossed to and fro, of them that love Death.
1718. Hickes & Nelson, J. Kettlewell, II. xxix. 131. At this Time there were Fire-Balls of Dissention flung up and down all over the Kingdom.
c. Her. (See quot.)
1830. Robson, Brit. Her., III. Gloss., s.v. Ball, Fire Ball, or Ball fired proper, is always represented with the fire issuing from the top. When otherwise, it should be so expressed in the blazon; as, a ball fired in four places.
3. a. A ball of coal-dust and clay or other material, used for kindling fires. b. A ball of fire-brick, put into a fire to save fuel.
