Word.ws English Dictionary

spit-fire

spit-fire is the alternative form of spitfire.

spit-fire is the alternative form of spit fire.

Meaning of spitfire

Noun

spitfire (plural spitfires)

  1. A cannon.
  2. (figuratively) A person with a fiery temper, someone easily provoked to anger, especially a woman or girl.
    • "―But however provoked, are your scribbling spitfires never to be satisfied?"1801, Peter Viereck, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin., Volume ⅩⅠⅠⅠ, by John Nichols (arranged by Thomas Sheridan), p. 143, published in London
    Synonyms:
    shitfire
  3. A larva of the spitfire sawfly, Perga affinis.

See all 4 meanings of spitfire

Meaning of spit fire

Noun

spit fire (plural spit fires)

  1. A cooking fire with a spit over it.
    • That's why," he said, holding up his knife so they could see it gleam in the light of the spit fire, "cutting with my method actually sharpens my knife.1982, Ted Mancuso, Frank Hill, Kung Fu for Young People: An Introduction to Karate and Kung Fu, →ISBN

See all 6 meanings of spit fire

Forms of spit-fire

pluralspit-fires

Questions about spit-fire

What is spit-fire the alternative form of?
Spit-fire is the alternative form of spitfire.

Words near spit-fire in the dictionary

  1. spit-and-sawdust
  2. spit-ball
  3. spit-balls
  4. spit-cup
  5. spit-cups
  6. spit-fire
  7. spit-fires
  8. spit-poison
  9. spit-poisons
  10. spit-roast
  11. spit-roasted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spit-fire (page history and authors); spitfire (page history and authors); spit fire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “spit-fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spit-fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.