firebreak

noun

1. An area cleared of all flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading across it.

   “The firefighters used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak in the forest to try to contain the forest fire.”

   “When a fire does break out, it tends to burn longer and further because the natural firebreaks that might have existed from previous, smaller fires are not there.”

   “More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.”

   “A mere 150 round-leaf pomaderris were thought left in the world in 2021 and now a planned firebreak in Victoria could destroy dozens of the plants.”

2. (figuratively)Any separating barrier.

   “That policy could consist of a statement that the declaring nation would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. This would strengthen the firebreak between the use of conventional and nuclear weapons.”

   “First, it serves to demonstrate that the practice of sustainable critique […] need not be impossibly philosophically rarefied […] Second, it serves as a firebreak against the unrelieved negativity that, it is sometimes charged, follows from Adorno's practices of reflexivity.”

   “Asked about the idea of a firebreak during the next school holiday, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said it was “not true that the government is planning a lockdown or firebreak around the October half-term”.”