smoke-eater
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of smoke-eater
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
But Pfeifer had a well-earned reputation for physical toughness, dating from his earliest days as a young smoke-eater charging into burning tenements across Manhattan.
From Washington Post
Pausing only long enough to see that Mr. Nestor and some others were looking after the exhausted "smoke-eater," Ned raced on after Tom.
From Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters, or, Battling with Flames from the Air by Victor [pseud.] Appleton
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.
