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English
Noun
fox-fire (uncountable)
- Alternative form of foxfire
1775 November 9, Henry L[arcom] Abbot, quoting Benjamin Gale, “Description of the American Turtle. [Dr. Benjamin Gale to Silas Deane, Esq., Killingsworth, Nov. 9, 1775.]”, in The Beginning of Modern Submarine Warfare, under Captain-Lieutenant David Bushnell, Sappers and Miners, Army of the Revolution. Being a Historical Compilation (Engineer School of Application, Willets Point, N Y H, Paper; no. III), New York, N.Y.: Printed on the Battalion Press, Sergt. Carmichael and Pvt. Beck, printers, published 1881, →OCLC, pages 176–177:On the inside is fixed a Barometer, by which he can tell the depth he is under water; a Compass, by which he knows the course he steers. In the barometer and on the needles of the compass is fixed fox-fire, i.e. wood that gives light in the dark.
, “B.” , “Groundless Fears”, in The Gift Book of Affection for the Young, London: James Blackwood and Co., , →OCLC, chapter II, page 58:["I]t won't burn our fingers, though, if we take it up. It is nothing but fox-fire. Humph! an old rotten stump:" and groping round for a stick, he struck it and knocked it all about, and wherever it lay it looked like burning coals.
1894 January 9, William Hamilton Gibson, “Foxfire”, in Harper’s Young People, volume XV, number 741, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC, page 189, column 1:[Nathaniel] Hawthorne in one of his books records a remarkable personal encounter with this weird fox-fire, and one which cost him dearly. He was on a journey by canal-boat, which had stopped en route for a brief period at midnight. During the interval he had stepped ashore, and was decoyed into a neighboring wood by the bright glow, which proved to be a fallen tree ablaze with phosphorescence. In his surprise and interest he lost all account of time, and thus missed his boat, [...] Almost any damp woods, especially after a rain, is likely to disclose its fox-fire, but it occasionally appears under circumstances where we little expect it.
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