fire-eater
noun1
A performer who pretends to swallow fire.
2
Figuratively A quarrelsome or belligerent person.
- "But he is a regular fire eater!" "He's a bad man—a blamed bad man!" fluttered Danny Griswold. "That's right," nodded Lewis Little. "He really wants to fight with swords, I believe."Burt L. Standish (Gilbert Patten)
3
US, Historical An extreme partisan for the South before the US Civil War.
- Frustrated in their attempts to change the law, fire-eaters turned their efforts to breaking it.1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 103:
- Synonyms
- firebreather, fire-breather, fire breather
- Related terms
- fire-eating