firebrand One who incites others to strife or revolution, an agitator; any energetic and impassioned person who inspires others to action. Literally, a firebrand is a burning stick that is used to set other materials on fire. The development of its figurative use is obvious.

get a rise out of To tease or goad someone in order to evoke a desired response; to provoke a person to react; to bait. This expression was originally angling parlance—rise describes the movement of a fish to the surface of the water to reach a fly or bait. By the 1800s, expressions such as get or take a rise out of referred to teasing or making a butt of someone. Today the expression has a wider application and can refer to evoking any desired response.

ginger group A faction which serves as the motivating or activating force within a larger body; Young Turks; a splinter group. “Ginger” is a pungent and aromatic substance used as a spice and sometimes used in medicines as a carminative or stimulant. Its qualities have spawned figurative use of the word meaning ‘animation, high spirits, piquancy.’ Thus, “ginger group” is an animating, stimulating subgroup. This British colloquial expression dates from the turn of the century.

look at cross-eyed To do the least little thing wrong, to commit the tiniest fault which provokes a response all out of proportion to its significance. This expression has no connection with internal strabismus but merely means to look at someone “the wrong way.” Use of the phrase dates from the mid-20th century.

make waves To disrupt or upset the equilibrium of a situation, to cause trouble, to stir things up.

Another expression, to rock the boat, is probably the source of this phrase, since moving a small boat from side to side creates waves in otherwise smooth water. Literally rocking a boat, especially a canoe or kayak, is a rather risky action since these boats readily capsize.

policy of pin pricks A strategy in which a series of petty hostile acts is meant to provoke the opposition; a course of trivial annoyances undertaken as a part of national policy. This expression, equivalent to the French un coup d’épingle, was first applied during the Fashoda incident, a period of strained Anglo-French relations in 1898:

While the phrase’s usage has declined since the Fashoda incident, it retains occasional use in describing irritating, but usually harmless, government policies.

put a cat among the pigeons To start trouble by introducing a highly controversial topic of discussion; to arouse passions by bringing an inflammatory subject into a conversation. This British colloquial expression is equivalent to the American phrase to put a match in a tinderbox.

ringleader One who leads an insurrection; the head of a street gang or underworld syndicate; any instigator or fomenter of trouble. At the elegant soirées of the 16th century, the person who led off the dancing was called the ringleader. He was so named because the participants, prior to the start of the dance, arranged themselves in a circle. In contemporary usage, the term always carries negative connotations, so it is difficult to determine if the current sense did indeed derive from the earlier.

sow dragon’s teeth To incite a not or other conflict; to foment revolution; to kindle the flames of war; to plant the seeds of strife. This expression is based on the ancient Greek myth of Cadmus, a legendary hero who, after slaying a dragon that had devoured his servants, was advised by Athena to plant the monster’s teeth in the ground, apparently to placate Mars, the deity who owned the dragon. The teeth produced fully armed soldiers who fought among themselves until all but five had been killed. Thus, while Cadmus thought his actions would have a pacifying effect, they did, in fact, cause more strife—a concept often implicit in the figurative use of sow dragon’s teeth.

stir up a hornets’ nest To activate latent hostility, to ask for trouble; to provoke a great stir and commotion of an antagonistic or controversial nature. The hornet has been symbolic of a virulent attacker for centuries; the phrase hornets’nest appeared in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1739); the now more common stir up a hornets’nest is widely used in both the United States and Britain:

wave the bloody shirt To incite to vengeance or retaliatory action; to foment or exacerbate hostilities. Two plausible theories are offered as to the origin of this phrase. One traces it to the Scottish battle of Glenfruin recounted by Sir Walter Scott in Rob Roy, after which the widows of the slain rode before James VI bearing their husbands’ bloody shirts on spears. The other traces it to the Corsican custom of mourning victims of feudal murder. The dead man’s bloody shirt, hung above his head as wailing female mourners surrounded his body and armed men guarded them all, was suddenly snatched and brandished about by one of the women, amidst increasingly loud lamentation. The men echoed her cries and vowed vengeance. Wave the bloody shirt was much used in the United States during the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War in reference to those who exploited and perpetuated sectional hostilities.