fire flaught (firflat)

[Sc., also written fire flaucht; The flamb of fyreflaucht lighting here and thare. Gavin Douglas , tr. of Virgil, p. 105. Even Goneril has her one splendid hour, her fire - flaught of hellish glory. Swinburne , Shakespeare, p. 173. 2. The northern light, or aurora borealis. fire flirt (fir'flert), n. Same as fire tail, 2. C. Swains on. [Local, Eng.] firefly (fir'fli), n.; pl. fireflies (-flīz). An insect which has the faculty of becoming luminous; a lampyrid or elaterid beetle which emits phosphorescent light from organs in some part of the body. One of the commonest American species is a lampyrid, Phot in us pyralis, vulgarly called lightning-bug. Its larva lives in the ground, feeding on earthworms and soft-bodied insects, and transforms to the pupa in an oval earthen cell in June, i uing as a beetle ten days later. In the genus Photuris the larva is luminous. The larger tropical fireflies belong to the elaterid genus Pyrophorus, and are known as cucujids. One of the most brilliant is P. noctilucus of South America and the West Indies, emitting such luminosity from two eye-like fe IMG:content-1365.png:[graphic] " 6 IMG:content-1366.jpg:[blocks in formation] C a a, larva; b, pupa in its earthen cell; e, beetle. (All natural sizes.) d, e, f, leg, under side of segment, and head of larva, enlarged. nestræ on the thorax that small print may be read by this light. The insects are sometimes used to afford light for domestic purposes, several of them confined together emitting light enough to enable a person to write. The glow worm is, however, a lampyrid. The lantern -fly is a homopterous insect of a different order. Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire - flies tangled in a silver braid. Tennyson, Locksley Hall. fire-fork (fir'fôrk), n. [ fyyrforke ; fire + fork .] A fork-shaped implement used for piling fagots upon a fire. fire-gilding (fir'gilding), n. A gilding proce in which the gold is put on in the form of an amalgam of gold and mercury, and then heated in a muffle. The mercury escaping leaves a film of gold. Fire - gilding may furnish gilding with a bright or dead lustre, scratch-brushed, ormolued, and also with different shades. Wahl , Galvanoplastic Manipulations, p. 239. fire-gilt (fir'gilt), a. Treated by the proce of fire-gilding: ng: as, a fire - gilt vase. fire-god (fir'god), n. The power of fire personified as a spirit; a god of fire. If we are to derive the notion that Jahveh is a " fire - god " from such language as: "Thou cover est Thyself with light as with a garment" (Ps. civ. 2), we may as well attribute the same idea to Paul, when he describes God as "dwelling in light unapproachable." Edinburgh Rev. , CXLV. 514. fire-grate (fir'grāt), n. The grate to hold the fuel in common use in domestic fireplaces and in many forms of heaters and furnaces. The furnace itself is, as already stated, the ordinary one, Ure, Dict., IV. 383. only, in place of the fire - grate, pa ages are built for the admi ion of gas and air.