tinder

From Middle English tinder, tunder, tender, tonder, from Old English tynder,[1] from Proto-Germanic *tundrą, *tundrǭ (“tinder”). Compare Saterland Frisian Tunder (“tinder”), Dutch tonder (“tinder”), German zünden (“to kindle”), Swedish tända (“to light, to set on fire”). More at tind.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɪndə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɪndəɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪndə(r)
• Homophone: tender (pen-pin merger)

tinder (countable and uncountable, plural tinders)

1. Small dry sticks and finely-divided fibrous matter etc., used to help light a fire.

Tinder refers to the first stage of building a fire: sparks light tinder, which then lights kindling, which then lights the main fire.

• kindling

• tinder box, tinderbox

• teend

tinder (third-person singular simple present tinders, present participle tindering, simple past and past participle tindered)

1. (transitive) To set fire to; torch.
   • Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

     Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together?

• dirten, rident, trined

• tunder, tender, tonder, tyndre, tyndir, tendre, tundir, tundur, tundyr

From Old English tynder, from Proto-Germanic *tundrą.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtindər/, /ˈtundər/, /ˈtɛndər/

tinder (uncountable)

1. tinder, firestarters

• English: tinder
• Scots: tunder, tundir

• “tinder (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-27.