firebreakとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• fire break

語源

From fire +‎ break. Compare windbreak and breakwater.

名詞

firebreak (plural firebreaks)

1. An area cleared of all flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading across it.

   Synonym: (Australia) firetrail

   The firefighters used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak in the forest to try to contain the forest fire.

   • 2014 September 19, Andrew Gumbel, “California's burning up: firefighters rush to the scene as major wildfires scorch the state”, in The Guardian‎:

     When a fire does break out, it tends to burn longer and further because the natural firebreaks that might have existed from previous, smaller fires are not there.

   • 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian‎:

     More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.

   • 2025 September 3, Graham Readfearn, “There are just 150 of these creamy-flowered shrubs left in the world – and a Victorian fire break could destroy dozens”, in The Guardian‎:

     A mere 150 round-leaf pomaderris were thought left in the world in 2021 and now a planned firebreak in Victoria could destroy dozens of the plants.

2. (figurative) Any separating barrier.
   • 1984, Dietrich Schroeer, Science, Technology and the Nuclear Arms Race, page 293:

     That policy could consist of a statement that the declaring nation would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would strengthen the firebreak between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons.

   • 2012, Daniel Levine, Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique, page 112:

     First, it serves to demonstrate that the practice of sustainable critique […] need not be impossibly philosophically rarefied […] Second, it serves as a firebreak against the unrelieved negativity that, it is sometimes charged, follows from Adorno's practices of reflexivity.

   • 2021 September 7, Rowena Mason and Nicola Davis, “No 10 not ruling out ‘firebreak’ lockdown if Covid cases rise”, in The Guardian‎:

     Asked about the idea of a firebreak during the next school holiday, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said it was “not true that the government is planning a lockdown or firebreak around the October half-term”.

参考

• firebreak on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• fireproof