fire-eater

See also: fireeater, fire eater, and Fire-Eater

English

Alternative forms

• fire eater, fireeater

Noun

fire-eater (plural fire-eaters)

1. A performer who pretends to swallow fire.
2. (figuratively) A quarrelsome or belligerent person.
   • Burt L. Standish (Gilbert Patten)

     "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."

3. (US, historical) An extreme partisan for the South before the US Civil War.
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 103:

     Frustrated in their attempts to change the law, fire-eaters turned their efforts to breaking it.

Synonyms

• (performer): firebreather, fire-breather, fire breather

Related terms

• fire-eating

Translations

performer

• Afrikaans: vuureter
• Arabic: آكِل اَلنَّار (ʔākil an-nār)
• Finnish: tulennielijä (fi)
• French: mangeur de feu m, mangeuse de feu f, cracheur de feu (fr) m, cracheuse de feu (fr) f
• German: Feuerschlucker (de) m, Feuerschluckerin (de) f
• Hebrew: רושף \ רוֹשֵׁף (he) m (roshéf), רושפת \ רוֹשֶׁפֶת f (roshéfet)
• Irish: slogaire tine m
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: agirbaz (ku) c

• Swedish: eldslukare c

quarrelsome or belligerent person

• Finnish: riitapukari

extreme partisan for the South