1. A juggler who eats or pretends to eat fire.
1672. Evelyn, Diary, 8 Oct. He [Richardson the famous Fire-eater] devour’d brimston on glowing coales before us, chewing and swallowing them.
1762. Goldsm., Cit. W., lxxxv. Stage-players, fire-eaters, singing women, dancing dogs, wild beasts, and wire-walkers, as their efforts are exerted for our amusement, ought not entirely to be despised.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 221. Like the celebrated fire-eater in London, men of penetration and uncorrupted judgment will never question.
2. One fond of fighting, a duellist; one who seeks occasion to quarrel or fight.
1804. Morning Herald, in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1805), VIII. 249. The Sieur W—d—m, fire-eater in ordinary to the troop, had been equally unsuccessful in his most dexterous trick.
1827. Sir J. Barrington, Personal Sk. Own Times, II. 8. About the year 1777, the Fire-eaters were in great repute in Ireland.
1840. Thackekay, Paris Sk.-bk. (1869), 25. In ’14 he killed a celebrated French fire-eater, who had slain a young friend of his.
1864. The Spectator, No. 1874, 28 May, 623/1. Resonable sober-minded men they were too, not fire-eaters wishing to fight for pure fighting’s sake, but men who knew what they were fighting for, who had something to lose, and who knew what they lost in getting killed.
b. (U.S.) Before the Civil War: A violent Southern partisan.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1883), I. 55. The newcomer proved to be a very genial and agreeable gentleman, an F. F. V., as he pleasantly acknowledged, a Southern Fire-Eater,—an announcement to which I responded, with similar good-humor and self-complacency, by parading my descent from an ancient line of Massachusetts Puritans.
1879. Tourgée, A Fool’s Errand, vii. 30. I thought he was an original Secesh, a regular fire-eater!
3. Trade slang. A quick worker.
1841. Savage, Dict. Printing, Fire-eater, Compositors who are expeditious workmen are styled Fire Eaters.
1889. Barrère & Leland, Slang Dict., Fire-eater (tailors), one who does a great amount of work in a very short time.
So Fire-eating vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1819. E. S. Barrett, Metropolis, II. 207. I would as soon sit down in company with my butcher, as with these fire-eating fellows; they should always be kept in their own element.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xvli. Crawley’s reputation as a fire-eating and jealous warrior, was a further and complete defence to his little wife.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1883), I. 55. My fire-eating friend has had ample opportunities to banquet on his favorite diet, hot and hot, in the Confederate service.
1882. W. Haslam, Yet not I (1883), 7–8. He told me that he did not know what sort of man I was, or he would certainly never have asked me to occupy his pulpit: he did not like that fire-eating kind of preaching.
1890. Spectator, 4 Jan., 5/2. The absence of fire-eating among the leading statesmen of Europe.
