open fire

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

open fire (third-person singular simple present opens fire, present participle opening fire, simple past and past participle opened fire)

1. (idiomatic) To begin firing (weapons) at something or someone.

   In warfare, whoever opens fire first has a greater chance of victory.

   • 2011, James D. Hornfischer, “28: Into the Light”, in Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal‎^[1], New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, retrieved 21 November 2022, pages 273–274:

     The Atlanta was swinging through her own turn to avoid a collision with the van when the searchlight, probably from the destroyer Akatsuki, lit upon her from abaft the port beam. Captain Jenkins reacted as commanders had been trained in peacetime: "Counter-illuminate!" he shouted. His gunnery officer, Lieutenant Commander William R. D. Nickelson, Jr., preferred to respond with other hardware. At once he shouted into his headset mike: "Fuck that! Open fire!" His assistant, Lloyd Mustin, was recording accurate ranges from the narrowcasting fire-control radar and didn't need help from other wavelengths. "Action port. Illuminating ship is target," he instructed his gun captains. Mustin, controlling the after trio of five-inch mounts, and Nickelson slewed their directors onto the lights and opened fire immediately.

Translations

to begin firing at something or someone

• Armenian: կրակ բացել (hy) (krak bacʻel)
• Azerbaijani: atəş açmaq
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Esperanto: ekpafi
• Finnish: avata tuli
• French: ouvrir le feu (fr)
• German: losschießen (de)
• Greek: ανοίγω πυρ (anoígo pyr)
• Hungarian: tüzet nyit
• Latvian: atklāt uguni
• Mongolian: гал нээх (gal neex)
• Portuguese: abrir fogo
• Russian: откры́ть ого́нь (ru) (otkrýtʹ ogónʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: otvòriti vȁtru

• Spanish: abrir fuego
• Swedish: öppna eld
• Turkish: ateş açmak

Noun

open fire (plural open fires)

1. An uncovered fire.

   We roasted chestnuts over an open fire.

Translations

uncovered fire

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: avotuli (fi)
• Russian: откры́тый ого́нь (otkrýtyj ogónʹ)
• Spanish: fuego abierto
• Swedish: öppen eld c
• Tagalog: dapog