bits of dry wood or other easily lighted material for starting a fire
Origin:
ME: see kindle
See kindling in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
Easily ignited material, such as dry sticks of wood, used to start a fire. Also called regionally fat pine, fatwood, lightwood.
Regional Note: In the southern United States, there are several regional terms for kindling. Lightwood, derived from the verb light (as in to light a fire), probably originated in Virginia and is now used throughout the South and especially in the South Atlantic states. Fatwood is used chiefly in Florida and Georgia. Fat pine also refers to the longleaf pine, native to the Gulf states, whose resin makes even a small sliver of the wood easily kindled.