# fire drill

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/fire-drill
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Any pointless, unproductive, useless, or chaotic activity.

## Examples

- This meeting is just another fire drill.
- The whole office spent the morning in a fire drill, moving files from one room to another for no reason.
- What had begun as a promising initiative devolved into an administrative fire drill, with committees drafting reports that no one would read.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.