/ · 1894 Brewer’s · F · Fire-drake or Fire-dragon
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A fiery serpent, an ignis-fatuus of large proportions, superstitiously believed to be a flying dragon keeping guard over hid treasures.
“There is a fellow somewhat near the door, he should be a brazier by his face, for, oʹ my conscience, twenty of the dog-days now reign in s nose… . That fire-drake did I hit three times on the head.”—Shakespeare: Henry VIII., v. 3.
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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.