firebreak

[fahy^uhr-breyk]

noun

a strip of plowed or cleared land made to check the spread of a prairie or forest fire.

Origin:
1890–95; fire + break

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Firebreak is always a great word to know.

So is doohickey. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

firebreak (ˈfaɪəˌbreɪk)

—n
1.	fireguard, Also: fire line a strip of open land in a forest or on a prairie, to arrest the advance of a fire
2.	a measure taken to arrest the advance of anything dangerous or harmful

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Quote Of The Day

"Good writing is always a breaking of the soil, clearing away prejudices, pulling up of sour weeds of crooked thinking, stripping the turf so as to get at what is fertile beneath. It would be amusing to carry the simile further. Those bulbs that flower in the sand and wither! The gay fiction annual that has to be planted again every year! Those experimental plants from Russia, France, and Greenwich Village that are always getting winter killed—confound 'em!—is it worth while planting them again? The stocky perennial that keeps coming up and coming up—so easy to grow and so ugly. Scarlet sage that gives a touch of fiery sin to the edge of the suburbanite's concrete walk! And then the good flowers—as honest as they are beautiful! The well-ordered gar den! The climbing rose that escapes and is the most beautiful of all!"

-Henry Seidel Canby

firebreak

fire·break