a knife-thrower, a juggler.

One of a class of jugglers mentioned in the Digest.

A performer at a circus, fair, or similar entertainment who eats, or who appears to eat, flames (from a burning torch), burning coals, red-hot…

(a) fire personified as a king (now historical and rare); (b) a famous or celebrated fire-eater (fire-eater, n. 1).

spec. A person who practises juggling (sense additions c).

a conjuror who pretends to swallow stones (see also compounds 2b).

one who entertains for money by swallowing or pretending to swallow swords.

†(a) U.S. (before the American Civil War) an extreme southern partisan advocating secession from the Union; = fire-eater, n. 2b (obsolete rare); (b)…

transferred and figurative applied to persons, etc. with reference to sense 1a. slang. A fire-eating juggler.

a Hindu conjurer.

one who throws knives (spec. as a form of entertainment); also U.S. slang (see quot. 1905).

in Egypt, esp. at Port Said, a conjuror who works with live chickens.