Underfire

//ˈʌndəfaɪə// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To heat from below. intransitive, transitive

    "It was contended, that the only objection which could be raised against under-firing, was the danger of incrustation, or deposit upon the boiler bottom, of matter held in suspension by the water; but that this rarely, if ever, caused explosions; the utmost injury it occasioned, was causing the boiler plate to be burnt out, and that this effect could not take place, without gross neglect."

  2. 2
    To intentionally operate a boiler, furnace, oven, etc., at a low level. transitive

    "The large supply of natural gas at Chicago permitted underfiring the batteries of the Chicago By-Product Coke Oven Plant with a mixture of producer gas and natural gas. […] The mixing of by-product coke oven gas with blast furnace gas to correct the varying thermal deficiencies of the latter when used to underfire coke ovens is patented by Becker."

  3. 3
    To burn fuel at less than the desired level, thus not providing heat efficiently. intransitive

    "Often home owners select a [wood] stove that is too hot for the space to be heated. Many stove owners compensate by underfiring the stove, which causes poor performance, increased emissions and potential chimney fires by creosote buildup."

  4. 4
    To fire at a low (or excessively low) temperature. transitive

    "You no longer need to underfire your products or guess at their high temperature behavior simply because of lag in furnace technology."

Example

More examples

"It was contended, that the only objection which could be raised against under-firing, was the danger of incrustation, or deposit upon the boiler bottom, of matter held in suspension by the water; but that this rarely, if ever, caused explosions; the utmost injury it occasioned, was causing the boiler plate to be burnt out, and that this effect could not take place, without gross neglect."

Etymology

From under- + fire.

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