counterfire

English

Etymology

counter- +‎ fire

Noun

counterfire (countable and uncountable, plural counterfires)

1. (military, uncountable) The firing of weapons in response.
   • 1959 May 18, “Red Chinese Open Firing on Matsus”, in The Washington Post and Times Herald‎^[1], volume 82, number 164, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1, column 5:

     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.

   • 2007, John W. Ellis, Police Analysis and Planning for Homicide Bombings, page 171:

     The second attack vehicle had difficulty navigating around the debris from the first attack, and was met with defensive counterfire by security personnel assigned to the hotel.

2. (firefighting, countable) A smaller fire lit at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.

Verb

counterfire (third-person singular simple present counterfires, present participle counterfiring, simple past and past participle counterfired)

1. (firefighting, intransitive) To light a smaller fire at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.

See also

• fight fire with fire