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Fire-eaters

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Persons ready to quarrel for anything. The allusion is to the jugglers who “eatflaming tow, pour melted lead down their throats, and hold red-hot metal between their teeth. Richardson, in the seventeenth century—Signora Josephine Girardelli (the original Salamander), in the early part of the nineteenth century—and Chaubert, a Frenchman, of the present century, were the most noted of these exhibitors.

“The great fire-eater lay unconscious upon the floor of the house.”—Nashville Banner.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Fion
Fir-cone
Fir-tree (The)
Fire. (Anglo-Saxon, fyr; Greek, pur.)
Fire
Fire Away!
Fire First
Fire-balloon
Fire-brand
Fire-drake or Fire-dragon
Fire-eaters
Fire-new
Fire-ship
Fire Up (To)
Fire Worship
Fire and Sword
Fire and Water
Firm as a Rock
First-class Hard Labour
First-fruits
First Water