fire dog

See also: firedog

English

Fire dogs from the 11th to 9th c. BC

Alternative forms

• firedog

Noun

fire dog (plural fire dogs)

1. (archaeology) Bronze Age artifact used in worshipping either bulls or the moon, or as a holder for wooden logs to be used in a fire altar.
2. (chiefly US) Either of a pair of horizontal metal supports for holding logs in a fireplace.

   Synonym: andiron

   • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, chapter 10:

     He was […] none of your free-and-easy companions, who would scrape their boots upon the firedogs in the common room, […]

Translations

Bronze Age artifact

• German: Mondhorn n, Mondidol

horizontal metal support for holding logs — see andiron