fire drill

English

A fire drill (fire starting device).

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

fire drill (plural fire drills)

1. An organized practice to prepare occupants of an office, school or other public building for evacuation in the event of a fire.

   Our teacher said that will have a fire drill today.

2. (idiomatic, US) Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.

   Since they've changed the standards again, our previous efforts now just amount to a fire drill.

3. A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.
   • 1999, Paul Douglas Campbell, Survival Skills of Native California, →ISBN, page 4:

     There is no machine on earth so potent, yet so simple and elegant, as the two sticks of the Native American fire drill;

Synonyms

• (evacuation practice for a fire): fire practice, disaster drill, emergency drill
• (pointless activity): Chinese fire drill, Polish fire drill
• (fire starting tool): bow drill, firestick, hand drill, pump drill

Translations

practice to prepare for evacuation in the event of a fire

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: simulacre d'incendi
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 消防演習／消防演习 (xiāofáng yǎnxí)

• Dutch: brandoefening (nl) f
• Finnish: paloharjoitus
• French: exercice d’incendie (fr) m, exercice incendie m
• German: Brandschutzübung f, Probealarm (de) m, Feuerübung f
• Irish: druil dhóiteáin f, cleachtadh dóiteáin m
• Italian: esercitazione antincendio f
• Japanese: 避難訓練 (hinan kunren), 消防訓練 (syōbō kunren)
• Navajo: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: ćwiczenie pożarowe n
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: simulacro de incendio m, simulacro (es) m
• Swedish: brandövning (sv) c

pointless activity

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: puuhastelu (fi)
• German: Luftnummer (de) f (coll.), verlorene Liebesmüh f
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: bezsensowna działalność f
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: tidsslöseri n

rod which is rotated on a flat surface

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: please add this translation if you can
• Egyptian: (ḏꜣ)
• Finnish: tulipora
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Fiedelbohrer m, Geigenbohrer m, Feuerbohrer (de) m, Bogendrille f
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀρίς f (arís)

• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: woolkʼą́ą́h
• Polish: łuk ogniowy m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: eldborr c

See also

• bow drill
• hand drill
• pump drill
• strap drill

References

• “fire-drill”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “fire-drill”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “fire drill”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.