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Synonyms

ball of fire

American  

noun

  1. a dynamic person capable of or displaying rapid and highly effective thought, action, etc..

    The new manager turned out to be a ball of fire.
ball of fire British  

noun

  1. informal a very lively person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
ball of fire Idioms  

  1. A dynamic, energetic, and successful individual, as in I hope Pat joins us; she's a real ball of fire. [Slang; early 1800s]

Etymology

Origin of ball of fire

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

We also didn’t want to wait too long, get stuck in traffic, and abandon our Mazda on the side of the road as we had to outrun a ball of fire on foot.

From Slate • Jan. 9, 2025

He has also pledged to clean up politics and hinted at legal reforms, promising to take to the task "like a ball of fire".

From BBC • Dec. 22, 2023

Video footage from the Tennessee storms showed a ball of fire rising from behind a row of homes into the sky.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 10, 2023

“It was a ball of fire, 30 or 40 feet high, never seen anything like it,” said Guenther.

From Reuters • Nov. 23, 2023

The bomb was an exact copy of the American implosion bomb tested at Trinity, and the rising, twisting, pulsing ball of fire looked just the same.

From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.