kindling

noun

1. Small pieces of wood and twigs used to start a fire.

   “Go and collect some kindling.”

   “When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons.”

2. The act by which something is kindled.

   “December 14, 1784, Hester Rogers, letter to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher The kindlings of love which had been felt before, now became a flame in every believing soul; and when fallen on our knees, the power of God descended of a truth […]”

adj

1. Illuminated, lit.

   “The morning o'er the gilded grove Bright on the kindling landscape fell, I sought her where she oft did rove In want and sorrow's lonely cell;—”

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of kindle

   “Despite the damp wood, he had no trouble kindling a fire.”