as in torch
a person who deliberately and unlawfully sets fire to a building or other property
after the second suspicious fire, police set a trap for the firebug
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Recent Examples of firebug
In video released by police, the firebug could be seen setting fire to a small pile of trash next to the head of a sleeping passenger stretched out on the seat.
—
Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News, 12 Feb. 2025
Two men have been charged with felony arson in Los Angeles in unrelated cases as authorities combat firebugs, looters and multiple raging blazes in Southern California.
—Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 15 Jan. 2025
And an even handier rundown of fireworks laws in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for you firebugs.
—Cincinnati Enquirer, The Enquirer, 4 July 2023
Rogers reviewed call logs to guess their likely next target and alerted officers, who nabbed the firebugs in action.
—Jennifer Brett, ajc, 28 Sep. 2019
Some, like the radiantly red firebug, mutate aesthetically, their normally symmetrical designs warped and fractured.
—National Geographic, 30 Apr. 2018
Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News, 12 Feb. 2025
Two men have been charged with felony arson in Los Angeles in unrelated cases as authorities combat firebugs, looters and multiple raging blazes in Southern California.
—Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 15 Jan. 2025
And an even handier rundown of fireworks laws in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for you firebugs.
—Cincinnati Enquirer, The Enquirer, 4 July 2023
Rogers reviewed call logs to guess their likely next target and alerted officers, who nabbed the firebugs in action.
—Jennifer Brett, ajc, 28 Sep. 2019
Some, like the radiantly red firebug, mutate aesthetically, their normally symmetrical designs warped and fractured.
—National Geographic, 30 Apr. 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for firebug
torch
Noun
-
There are processions with music and folk dance performances, but the most impressive sight might be when local fishermen in rowboats illuminate the lake with torches.—
Sarah Buder,
AFAR Media,
8 Oct. 2025
-
The novel opens as the teenage Karl Rossmann, whose parents shipped him off to America for fathering a child when he was seduced by the family’s thirty-five-year-old cook, arrives on a steamer in New York harbor and sees the Statue of Liberty holding not the emblematic torch but rather a sword.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Firebug.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/firebug. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
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