Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A soldier's first experience of actual combat conditions.
- n. A severe ordeal experienced for the first time.
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic The first experience of a severe ordeal, especially a first experience of military combat
Examples
“He was back on the Essex again when she was attacked in Valparaiso harbor by a British squadron, and got his baptism of fire in one of the hardest-fought naval battles in history.”
“I think the darkeys 'll give him a' baptism of fire 'of sumthin akin to it, afore long, that' ll do him more good than jinen meetin ', and' ll be a”
John and Mary; or, The Fugitive Slaves, a Tale of South-Eastern Pennsylvania
“This unique birth and baptism of fire in themselves surroundedthe Reich with a halo of historic glory such as only the oldest states-andthey but seldom-could boast.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘baptism of fire’.
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fire place
place to place 'fire' words
fire eater, field of fire, campfire, backfire, cannon fire, cease-fire, crown fire, center-fire, direct fire, fire pit, cookfire, fire tongs and 111 more...
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RELI - biblical phrases
a bird in the han..., a broken heart, a cross to bear, a drop in the bucket, a fly in the oint..., a graven image, a house divided a..., a labour of love, a law unto themse..., a leopard cannot ..., a man after his o..., a multitude of sins and 118 more...
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RELI - Biblical collocations
Biblical collocations and collocations relating to the Bible. This is just a stud. The topic is enermous.
Acts of the Apostles, Adam and Eve, book oath, carob bean tree, epistle lesson, felix culpa, festival of lights, ficus sycomorus, fig leaf, Geneva Bible, Gog and Magog, golden rule and 324 more...
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ready,aim, pyre
words with pyr or the sense of fire
pyrachanta, pyral, pyralis, pyrex, pyrexia, pyrite, pyrena, pyrene, pyrenees, pyrethroid, pyretology, pyrgom and 76 more...
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phrases
ironic detachment, get one's leg over, run wild, mad as a box of f..., keep your chin up, baker's dozen, fire a shot in anger, have a field day, go over with a fi..., as the crow flies, leap of faith, learn one's lesson and 224 more...
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Anzac Day
Words heard on and around Anzac Day, a public holiday in Australia on 25th April. It commemmorates the landings on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey during World War I by ANZAC forces, ie. the Aust...
cenotaph, dawn service, kokoda, servicemen, servicewomen, anzac, gallipoli, the dardanelles, digger, simpson and his d..., tin hat, medal and 77 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for baptism of fire.
reesetee I've heard this and "trial by fire" to mean starting under the worst possible conditions. May 1, 2009
chained_bear I neglected to wish you a happy ANZAC Day, frindley... if that doesn't sound too weird... Apr 27, 2009
seanahan I agree with dontcry. Baptism by fire is baptism done under fire, baptism of fire seems like it would put the fire out. Apr 27, 2009
dontcry I've always heard it, and used it as baptism by fire. Meaning hitting the ground running -- or starting off on something under the worst possible conditions... Apr 26, 2009
yarb It's always been intuitive for me: baptism of water = soft, gentle, orderly:- ergo opposite = baptism of fire. Apr 25, 2009
chained_bear Interestingly, I never heard this phrase until I lived in Australia (many moons ago), and since returning to the U.S., I hardly ever hear it! Of course it's got a very understandable/recognizable meaning, but I always think of Australia when I hear it—specifically of Gallipoli—and only just now it dawns on me that maybe that's because I did a big project on Australian war veterans...
In the U.S. Civil War (just to continue the tangential nature of comments...), soldiers referred to their first experience of battle as 'seeing the elephant' or 'seeing the big show.' Apr 25, 2009
frindley Rarely: ordeal, martyrdom. Frequently: a soldier's first experience of battle. As a result, and more generally: a tough first encounter with anything, especially when the training or preparation is necessarily insufficient. The latter is primarily how I use it and hear it used. (For example, I arrived at my job in the United States the week when the Executive Dir. was on vacation and we were staging the first concerts of the season. To say it was full on was an understatement. Two phrases were thrown about: "thrown in the deep end" and "baptism of fire".)
Background is interesting as it appears there's a religious meaning and a military meaning and the conflation of the two in English may have come about from a mishearing or mistranslation of a French phrase. (As of writing, Wikipedia's entry on this phrase "corrects" the French without explanation, cites Online Etymology.)
Baptism of fire (in the more literal sense of ordeal, martyrdom) has biblical origins, e.g. Matthew 3:11 "I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."
Baptism of fire (military sense) first appears in O'Meara's Napoleon in Exile, 1822: "I love a brave soldier who has undergone, le baptême du fer, whatever nation he may belong to." In other words a baptism of iron or a baptism of the blade. This informative site gives the English "baptism of fire" as first appearing 1857.
(See bilby's Anzac Day list for the comments that sent me off on this tangent.) Apr 25, 2009