Counterfire

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The firing of weapons in response. uncountable

    "The Nationalist Defense Ministry claimed Communist guns on the mainland coast were silenced by effective counterfire. By Nationalist count, the Reds fired 444 shells, of which 162 hit Matsu Island, 112 Peikantang Island and 170 landed in the sea."

  2. 2
    fire intended to neutralize or destroy enemy weapons wordnet
  3. 3
    A smaller fire lit at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak. countable
Verb
  1. 1
    To light a smaller fire at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
backfirecomebackcounterattackcountermeasurecounterrevolutioncounterstroke

Example

More examples

"The Nationalist Defense Ministry claimed Communist guns on the mainland coast were silenced by effective counterfire. By Nationalist count, the Reds fired 444 shells, of which 162 hit Matsu Island, 112 Peikantang Island and 170 landed in the sea."

Etymology

From counter- + fire.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.