Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See pyrotechnics.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The management and mechanical application of fire.
- n. The fabrication of fireworks for military and ornamental purposes (see firework, 2); the composition and scientific use of combustible substances employed as signals, as destructive agents, or for purposes of display.
Wiktionary
- n. The manufacture and use of fireworks
- n. The use of fire in chemistry and metallurgy
- n. The manufacture and use of gunpowder, bombs etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The use and application of fire in science and the arts.
- n. Same as Pyrotechnics.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the craft of making fireworks
Etymologies
- New Latin pyrotechnia : Greek puro-, pyro- + Greek tekhnē, craft; see technique.
Examples
“Is it not as if one should have, through majestic powers of science, the comets given into his hand, or the planets and their moons, and should draw them from their orbits to glare with the municipal fireworks on a holiday night, and advertise in all towns, “Very superior pyrotechny this evening”?”
“The efficiency of a given course of training is indicated by the power and endurance which it imparts, -- not by such pyrotechny as may be let off before an examining committee.”
“And strangest of all, at the final puff and bang of each remarkable piece of pyrotechny, the bells ring out just the same sudden clang which marks the agonizing moment of the”
“It is decomposed by heat, and is largely used in pyrotechny for the preparation of green fire.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"
“His lyre was attuned to reach the ear rather than the heart; his scenes are in enchanted lands; his _dramatis personæ_ tread theatrical boards; his thunder is a melo-dramatic roll; his lightning is pyrotechny; his tears are either hypocritical or maudlin; and his laughter is the perfection of genteel comedy.”
“No! be assured that we know as little about politics as pyrotechny -- that we are as blissfully ignorant of all that relates to the science of government as that of gastronomy -- and have ever since our boyhood preferred the solid consistency of gingerbread to the crisp insipidity of parliament.”
“The carousals of the army and navy lasted for three days, at the new Doge's cost, the resources of the fleet having no difficulty in running to every kind of pageantry and pyrotechny.”
“Having seen Venetian pyrotechny, one realizes that all fireworks should be ignited over water.”
“Sick and giddy, the heroine shut her eyes, seeing behind their lids wondrous phantasmagoria of coloured pyrotechny, rivalling the most marvellous triumphs of the magician Brock ....”
“As this subject, however interesting to the theoretical pyrotechnist, cannot be understood without a knowledge of chemistry, it is obvious that that science is a powerful aid to pyrotechny ....”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pyrotechny’.
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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 75 more...
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techno-
art; science; skill
technocracy, technology, technological, technochemistry, pyrotechny, pyrotechnics, technical, techno, technician
mollusque The combination of those ingredients resulted in a dazzling pyrotechny of sense . . .
--Vladimir Nabokov, 1974, Look at the Harlequins! p. 250 Jun 13, 2009
chained_bear "the doctrine of artificial fire-works and fire-arms, teaching the structure and service of all those used in war." (citation in list description) Oct 9, 2008