fire up

phrasal verb

fired up; firing up; fires up

1

: to start (something) by lighting a fire

We fired up the grill for the barbecue.

2

: to cause (something) to start working

I fired up my computer and got down to work.

Before we start working let's fire up the coffeemaker.

3

: to fill (someone) with energy or enthusiasm

The coach fired up the players with a pep talk.

—usually used as (be/get) fired up

We were fired up for the concert.

Examples of fire up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Annese has spent nearly the entirety of his adult life as a football coach and has never fired up a smoothie station. —Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 8 Jan. 2026

Heneghan, a senior engineer for more than three decades at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, fired up her small back-up battery to power her laptop and cell phone without realizing the Eaton Fire had begun. —Literary Hub, 8 Jan. 2026

Then the Orion capsule will fire up its main thruster and shoot off towards the Moon on its 240,000-mile, four-day journey. —The Week, TheWeek, 7 Jan. 2026

By Friday, more storms will fire up in the afternoon east of I-35. —Lauren Bostwick, CBS News, 7 Jan. 2026

Rhymes for fire up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup