fire-eater

[fahyuhr-ee-ter]

noun

1. an entertainer who pretends to eat fire.

2. an easily provoked, belligerent person.

3. U.S. History.,  an early and extreme Southern advocate of secession before the Civil War.

fire-eater

noun

1. a performer who simulates the swallowing of fire

2. a belligerent person

Other Word Forms

• fire-eating adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fire-eater¹

First recorded in 1665–75

Example Sentences

At these multi-weekend events, artisans sold jewelry, candles and clothing; musicians played lutes and flutes; and fire-eaters, jugglers, acrobats and jousters performed feats of medieval derring-do.

Read more on Washington Post

You pass a fire-eater elevated on a striped platform.

Read more on Literature

As before there are chapter-length portraits of key players: the Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner, Preston Brooks, the South Carolina fire-eater who caned him, and Thaddeus Stevens, radical Republican and implacable foe of slavery.

Read more on The Guardian

The fire-eater, amused, yelled at Salvador to catch his little brother before he ran south all the way to Mexico City.

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The theatre said the fire-eater was able to walk out of the building to the ambulance.

Read more on BBC