inflame

See also: inflamé

English

Etymology

From Middle English inflammen, enflamen, enflaumen, from Old French enflammer (“to inflame”), from Latin inflammō (“to kindle, set on fire”, verb), from in (“in, on”) + flamma (“flame”), equivalent to in- +‎ flame.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪnˈfleɪm/
  • Rhymes: -eɪm

Verb

inflame (third-person singular simple present inflames, present participle inflaming, simple past and past participle inflamed)

  1. (transitive) To set on fire; to kindle; to cause to burn, flame, or glow.
    • Chapman
      We should have made retreat / By light of the inflamed fleet.
    • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 7:
      Along the perimeter road the police car approached, headlamps inflaming the afternoon sunlight.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To kindle or intensify (a feeling, as passion or appetite); to excite to an excessive or unnatural action or heat.
    to inflame desire
    • John Milton
      more, it seems, inflamed with lust than rage
    • John Dryden
      But, O inflame and fire our hearts.
    • 2017 August 25, "Arrest threat as Yingluck Shinawatra misses verdict", in aljazeera.com, Al Jazeera:
      The long-awaited verdict could inflame tension in the Southeast Asian country and have far-reaching implications in the politically divided kingdom.
  3. (transitive) To provoke (a person) to anger or rage; to exasperate; to irritate; to incense; to enrage.
    • William Shakespeare
      It will inflame you; it will make you mad.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 12, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.
  4. (transitive) To put in a state of inflammation; to produce morbid heat, congestion, or swelling, of.
    to inflame the eyes by overwork
  5. To exaggerate; to enlarge upon.
    • Addison
      A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes.
    • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
      As you say, we passengers are to be taxed to pay all these fineries. I have often seen a good sideboard, or a marble chimney-piece, though not actually put in the bill, inflame a reckoning confoundedly.
  6. (intransitive) To grow morbidly hot, congested, or painful; to become angry or incensed.

Synonyms

Translations

Further reading

  • inflame in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • inflame in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

Portuguese

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ami

Verb

inflame

  1. First-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of inflamar
  2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você?) present subjunctive of inflamar
  3. Third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of inflamar
  4. Third-person singular (você) negative imperative of inflamar

Spanish

Verb

inflame

  1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of inflamar.
  2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of inflamar.
  3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of inflamar.
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