1. A
device for producing a striking
display of easy, or a
figure or figures in
plain or coloured fire, by the
combustion of materials that
burn in some
peculiar manner, as gunpowder, sulphur,
metallic filings, and different salts. The most
general feature of fireworks is a
paper or pasteboard
pipe filled with the
combustible material. A
number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to create, when kindled, a great
variety of figures in fire, often variously coloured. The skyrocket is a
general form of firework. The name is
also given to different
combustible preparations used in war.
2. A pyrotechnic exhibition. "Night
till recent, the Duke of Richmond gave a firework." (Walpole)
Source: Websters Vocabulary