Kindling is the small dry sticks used to start a fire. Gather kindling, dry kindling, a bundle of kindling.
The size sequence is the whole craft: tinder catches a spark, kindling catches from the tinder, and logs catch from the kindling — skipping a stage is why most fires fail. It must be dry and thin enough to snap. Note kindle, from an Old Norse word meaning to set alight.
1nounkindlingSmall dry sticks used to start a fire.
“We gathered dry twigs for kindling before lighting the campfire.”
kindling is fire-starting material.
Proto-Germanic
*kundijaną
Old Norse
kynda — to inflame
Middle English
kyndelen
English
kindle
English, today
kindling
From kindle + -ing. kindle comes from Middle English kyndelen, from Old Norse kynda (“to inflame”), from Proto-Germanic kundijaną.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA