firework

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A device consisting of a combination of explosives and combustibles, set off to generate colored lights, smoke, and noise for amusement.
2. n. A display of such devices.
3. n. An exciting or spectacular display, as of musical virtuosity.
4. n. A display of rage or fierce contention.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Work wrought in the fire.
2. n. A contrivance of inflammable and explosive materials combined in various proportions, for the purpose of producing in combustion beautiful or amusing scenic effects, or to be used as a night signal on land or sea, or for various purposes in war: commonly used in the plural. The basis of these compositions consists of potassium chlorate, niter, sulphur, and charcoal, pulverized, and combined in different proportions with other agents which have the quality of imparting color to the flame (as with copper sulphate for blue, strontium nitrate or carbonate for red, potassium salts for violet, sodium salts for yellow, barium carbonate or nitrate for green), and with iron- and steel-filings to produce brilliant scintillations. These compositions are packed in cases of paper and pasteboard, generally cylindrical, the processes of packing and finishing demanding much skill and care. For scenic displays, the forms of fireworks most in use are the fixed fires, such as theater-fires, lances, and gerbes; rotating fires, as pin- or catharine-wheels, spiral wheels, etc.; ascending fires, as sky-rockets and girandoles; Roman candles; etc. As night signals or as incendiary projectiles, various pyrotechnic devices have been employed with success in military and naval operations. These devices consist of preparations used in the service of cannon or cannon-ammunition, such as slow-match, quick-match, friction, electric, and obturating primers, portfires, and fuses; for signals, such as signal-rockets, signal-lights, blue lights, etc., with their decorations consisting of stars, serpents, gold rain, rain of fire, and marrons; for incendiary purposes, as the carcass, incendiary match, and fire-stone; for light, as tarred links, torches, light-balls, fire-balls, pitched fascines, and parachute-shells; for offensive and defensive purposes, as bags of powder, petards, projectile rockets, as those of Congreve and Hale, light-barrels, and dynamite or nitroglycerin cartridges. The most familiar of the many forms of fire-works is the sky-rocket, whether employed as a signal or for mere display, or as a projectile in war. An important use of the rocket is that of a line-carrier to establish communication between a wrecked vessel and the shore. The Chinese, if not the actual inventors of fireworks, were the first to use the rocket as a missile in war, and the pyrotechnic exhibitions of the Chinese and Japanese still surpass those of all other peoples in ingenuity and splendor. The Japanese have contrived an exhibition of fireworks by daylight, consisting of bombs which, exploding high in air, discharge jets or volumes of colored smoke which take the forms of birds, fishes, trees, and even of human beings. Fireworks are supposed to have been introduced into Europe by the Italians. They are mentioned in a description of a pageant at the marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn.

Wiktionary

1. n. A device using gunpowder and other chemicals which, when lit, emits a combination of coloured flames, sparks, whistles or bangs, and sometimes made to rocket high into the sky before exploding, used for entertainment or celebration.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A device for producing a striking display of light, or a figure or figures in plain or colored fire, by the combustion of materials that burn in some peculiar manner, as gunpowder, sulphur, metallic filings, and various salts; also called a pyrotechnic device. The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube filled with the combustible material. A number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to make, when kindled, a great variety of figures in fire, often variously colored. The skyrocket is a common form of firework. The art of designing fireworks for purposes of entertainment is called pyrotechnics. The name firework is also given to various combustible preparations used in war.
2. n. Obs. in the sing. A pyrotechnic exhibition; an entertainment consisting of the discharge of fireworks{1}.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (usually plural) a device with an explosive that burns at a low rate and with colored flames; can be used to illuminate areas or send signals etc.