Meanings
nounKentish fire (uncountable)
- uncountableAn expression of emotion from an audience, either of approbation or derision; cheers; jeering.
The entry of the professor was signalled by a few rounds of Kentish fire from the heavy boots of those students who sat on the highest tier of the gloomy theatre under the grey cobwebbed windows.
1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC
Origin
In reference to meetings held in Kent that opposed the Catholic Emancipation Bill.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
Kentish fire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kentish%20fire
MLA
“Kentish fire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kentish%20fire. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Kentish fire,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kentish%20fire.
Source: Kentish fire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.