fire in the belly

Definitions

The emotional stamina and vigor, passion, or inner drive to achieve something, to take action, etc.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“Carlyle, indeed, had so much more depth and knowledge of the heart, his portraits of mankind are felt and rendered with so much more poetic comprehension, and he, like⟳ his favourite Ram Dass, had a fire in his belly so much more hotly burning than the patent reading lamp by which Macaulay studied.”

“I felt no conviction of a burning sincerity, of that fire in the belly which made some of the wilder nonconformist parsons of my youth appear⟳ almost incandescent.”

““He has the fire in the belly to make⟳ this thing work⟳,” said Mr. Emery.”

“In Washington, some Republicans are skeptical that Thune has the fire in the belly for the brutal campaign process⟳.”

“Sent back out by Johnson with fire in their bellies, England at last⟳ began to threaten⟳ as Manu Tuilagi smashed Sean Lamont and then sent Delon Armitage racing down the left touchline.”

CEFR level