chimney's afire

English

Pronunciation

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Phrase

chimney's afire

  1. (nautical) A phrase shouted when blood gushes out of a whale's blowhole after a killing blow is struck with a lance
    • 2015 December, Nathaniel Philbrick, “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World”, in Smithsonian Magazine‎[1]:
      Success would show itself as a geyser of crimson blood gushing from the whale’s blowhole, which caused whalemen to cry out, ‘Chimney’s afire!’

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