fire-raiser
British, and particularly Scottish legal and colloquial, term for an arsonist — someone who deliberately sets fire to property.
Definitions
British, and particularly Scottish legal and colloquial, term for an arsonist — someone who deliberately sets fire to property. 'Fire-raising' is the formal Scottish legal charge equivalent to arson in English law, and 'fire-raiser' is the person who commits it. The term has a slightly old-fashioned quality in everyday British English but remains current in legal and journalistic contexts, especially in Scotland, and carries the same weight of criminality and danger as 'arsonist.'
Police confirmed they were hunting a fire-raiser responsible for at least four warehouse blazes across the city.
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(British) An arsonist.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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Semantically related
- fireraising85%
(Scotland, criminal law) arson; deliberate setting of fires.
- fire teaser65%
A historical British term for the fireman of a steam engine — the person responsible for stoking and maintaining the fire that powered the boiler. The word is colourful and suggests the skilled, ongoing labour of coaxing fire to produce consistent steam pressure. Now purely historical.
- firebug63%
(slang) A pyromaniac or arsonist.
- fire teaser61%
(UK, historical) The fireman of a steam engine.