[OE. fýr-draca, f. fýr, FIRE sb. + draca dragon.]
1. A ‘fiery dragon’; a mythical creature belonging to Germanic superstition.
Beowulf, 5371.
| Þa wæs þeod-sceaða, þriddan siðe, | |
| frecne fyr-draca, fæhða ȝemyndiȝ. |
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 95.
| Somtime the fire-drake it semeth, | |
| And so the lewde people it demeth. |
1522. Skelton, Why not to Court, 975.
| That he wolde than make | |
| The devyls to quake, | |
| To shudder and to shake, | |
| Lyke a fyerdrake. |
1683. Crowne, City Politiques, II. i. Pod. Were not your writings like so many Fire-drakes? No printer wou’d meddle with ’em, no person come near ’em.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. xiii. 258. Expecting the enchanter to enter on a flaming fire-drake, at every howl of the wind.
1883. A. Lang, A Bookman’s Purgatory, in Longm. Mag., II. Sept., 517. The poor man had purchased a little old Olaus Magnus, with woodcuts, representing were-wolves, fire-drakes, and other fearful wild-fowl, and was happy in his bargain.
† 2. a. A fiery meteor. b. A will-o’-the-wisp.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 10. Flying Dragons, or as Englishmen call them, fire-Drakes, be caused in this manor.
1607. G. Wilkins, Miseries Enforced Marr., in Hazl., Dodsley, IX. 572.
| Who should be lamps to comfort out our way, | |
| And not like firedrakes to lead men astray. |
1631. Chapman, Cæsar & Pompey, Plays, 1873, III. 159.
| Gab. So haue I seen a fire drake glide at midnight | |
| Before a dying man to point his graue, | |
| And in it stick and hide. |
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 127. He deals in signs and portents, fire-drakes, bloody banners, armies fighting in clouds, and stars streaming through the sky.
† 3. A kind of firework. Obs.
1607. Middleton, Five Gallants, III. ii. 82.
| But, like fire-drakes, | |
| Mounted a little, gave a crack, and fell. |
1634. J. Bate, Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 80. How to make fire Drakes.
1706. in Phillips (ed. Kersey).
† 4. transf. a. An alchemist’s assistant. b. A man with a fiery nose. c. One who is fond of fighting; = FIRE-EATER 2. d. A fire-man. e. = FIRESHIP 2.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. i.
| Mam. That’s his fire-drake, | |
| His lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffes his coales, | |
| Till he firke nature vp, in her owne center. |
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iv. 45. Twenty of the Dog-dayes now reigne in’s Nose; all that stand about him vnder the Line, they need no other pennance: that Fire-Drake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his Nose discharged against mee.
c. 1626. Dick of Devon., I. ii., in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 14.
| Our shipps | |
| Carrying such firedrakes in them that [etc.]. |
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, II. (1692), 146. It is not strange that such Fire-Drakes as he writes of could not forbear to threaten the Nation, that they would prevail, though with Uproar and Violence.
1631. Dekker, Match mee, I. Wks. 1873, IV. 140. Bil. Another Fire-drake! More Salamanders! Heere Sir.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fire-drakes, Men with a Phenix for their Badge, in Livery, and Pay from the Insurance-Office, to extinguish Fires.
1710. Brit. Apollo, II. Q. No. 3. 7/1.
| A large-haunc’d Almain, | |
| Or a Fire-drake of Spain, | |
| Perhaps put you in the same Plight. |
