fire-eater

plural fire-eaters · alternative fire eater · alternative fireeater

1. A performer who pretends to swallow fire.

   Synonyms: firebreather, fire-breather, fire breather

2. figurativelyA 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. UShistoricalAn 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

plural Fire-Eaters

1. USalternativegovernmentAlternative form of fire-eater (“extreme partisan for the South before the US Civil War”).