flame

Use Flame in a sentence

noun

burning gas or vapor, as from wood or coal, that is undergoing combustion; a portion of ignited gas or vapor.

Often, flames. the state or condition of blazing combustion: to burst into flames.

any flamelike condition; glow; inflamed condition.

brilliant light; scintillating luster.

bright coloring; a streak or patch of color.

flame color.

intense ardor, zeal, or passion.

Informal. an object of one's passionate love; sweetheart: He's taking out his new flame tonight.

Computer Slang. an angry, critical, or disparaging electronic message, as an e-mail or newsgroup post.

Relevant Questions

How To Paint Flames

How To Paint Ghost Flame...

How To Paint Ghost Flame...

verb (used without object)

10.

to burn with a flame or flames; burst into flames; blaze.

11.

to glow like flame; shine brilliantly; flash.

12.

to burn or burst forth with strong emotion; break into open anger, indignation, etc.

13.

Computer Slang. to send an angry, critical, or disparaging electronic message.

00:10

Flame is one of our favorite verbs.

So is lollygag. Does it mean:

to spend time idly; loaf.

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used with object)

14.

to subject to the action of flame or fire.

15.

to flambé.

16.

Computer Slang. to insult or criticize angrily in an electronic message.

Verb phrases

17.

flame out,

(of a jet engine) to cease to function due to an interruption of the fuel supply or to faulty combustion.

to burst out in or as if in flames.

Origin:
1300–50; (noun) Middle English flaume < Anglo-French, variant of flaumbe; Old French flambe, earlier flamble < Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma flame (see -ule); (v.) Middle English flaumen < Anglo-French flaum(b)er; Old French flamber < Latin flammāre, derivative of flamma

Related forms

flam·er, noun

flame·less, adjective

flame·like, adjective

out·flame, verb (used with object), out·flamed, out·flam·ing.

pre·flame, adjective

un·der·flame, noun

Synonyms
1. fire. Flame, blaze, conflagration refer to the light and heat given off by combustion. Flame is the common word, referring to a combustion of any size: the light of a match flame. Blaze usually denotes a quick, hot, bright, and comparatively large flame: The fire burst into a blaze. Conflagration refers to destructive flames which spread over a considerable area: A conflagration destroyed Chicago.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To flame

Collins

World English Dictionary

flame (fleɪm)

—n
1.	a hot usually luminous body of burning gas often containing small incandescent particles, typically emanating in flickering streams from burning material or produced by a jet of ignited gas
2.	(often plural) the state or condition of burning with flames: to burst into flames
3.	a brilliant light; fiery glow
4.	a. a strong reddish-orange colour
	b. (as adjective): a flame carpet
5.	intense passion or ardour; burning emotion
6.	informal a lover or sweetheart (esp in the phrase an old flame)
7.	informal an abusive message sent by electronic mail, esp to express anger or criticism of an internet user

—vb
8.	to burn or cause to burn brightly; give off or cause to give off flame
9.	(intr) to burn or glow as if with fire; become red or fiery: his face flamed with anger
10.	(intr) to show great emotion; become angry or excited
11.	(tr) to apply a flame to (something)
12.	archaic (tr) to set on fire, either physically or with emotion
13.	informal to send an abusive message by electronic mail

[C14: from Anglo-French flaume, from Old French flambe, modification of flamble, from Latin flammula a little flame, from flamma flame]

'flamer

—n

'flameless

—*adj*

'flamelet

—n

'flamelike

—*adj*

'flamy

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

flame

mid-14c., from Anglo-Fr. flaume, O.Fr. flamme, from L. flammula "small flame," dim. of flamma "flame," from PIE *bhleg- "to shine, flash," from base *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn" (see bleach). The meaning "a sweetheart" is attested from 1640s; the figurative sense of

"burning passion" was in M.E. The verb is M.E. flamen, from O.Fr. flamer; the verb sense of "unleash invective on a computer network" is from 1980s. Flamer, flaming "glaringly homosexual" are homosexual slang from 1970s, but flamer "glaringly conspicuous person or thing" (1809) and flaming "glaringly conspicuous" (1781) are much earlier in the general sense, both originally with reference to "wenches." Flaming as an intensifying adj. dates from late 19c. Flame-thrower (1917) translates Ger. flammenwerfer (1915).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

flame

(flām) Pronunciation Key
The hot, glowing mixture of burning gases and tiny particles that arises from combustion. Flames get their light either from the fluorescence of molecules or ions that have become excited, or from the incandescence of solid particles involved in the combustion process, such as the carbon particles from a candle.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Slang Dictionary

flame definition

in.
to write an excited and angry note in a computer forum or news group. (See also flamage.) : Stop flaming a minute and try to explain your position calmly.
n.
a verbal attack as in sense 1. : My email is full of flames this morning!
in.
to appear obviously homosexual. : Man, she's flaming today!

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

flame definition

messaging
To rant, to speak or write incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude or with hostility toward a particular person or group of people. "Flame" is used as a verb ("Don't flame me for this, but..."), a flame is a single flaming message, and "flamage" /flay'm*j/ the content.
Flamage may occur in any medium (e.g. spoken, electronic mail, Usenet news, World-Wide Web). Sometimes a flame will be delimited in text by marks such as "...".
The term was probably independently invented at several different places.
Mark L. Levinson says, "When I joined the Harvard student radio station (WHRB) in 1966, the terms flame and flamer were already well established there to refer to impolite ranting and to those who performed it. Communication among the students who worked at the station was by means of what today you might call a paper-based Usenet group. Everyone wrote comments to one another in a large ledger. Documentary evidence for the early use of flame/flamer is probably still there for anyone fanatical enough to research it."
It is reported that "flaming" was in use to mean something like "interminably drawn-out semi-serious discussions" (late-night bull sessions) at Carleton College during 1968-1971.
Usenetter Marc Ramsey, who was at WPI from 1972 to 1976, says: "I am 99% certain that the use of "flame" originated at WPI. Those who made a nuisance of themselves insisting that they needed to use a TTY for "real work" came to be known as "flaming asshole lusers". Other particularly annoying people became "flaming asshole ravers", which shortened to "flaming ravers", and ultimately "flamers". I remember someone picking up on the Human Torch pun, but I don't think "flame on/off" was ever much used at WPI." See also asbestos.
It is possible that the hackish sense of "flame" is much older than that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced computing device of the day. In Chaucer's "Troilus and Cressida", Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's called "the fleminge of wrecches." This phrase seems to have been intended in context as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right at home on Usenet.
[Jargon File]
(2001-03-11)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

FLAME
Family Life and Maternity Education

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

flame

see add fuel to the fire (flames); burst into (flames); fan the flames; go up in flames; shoot down (in flames).

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

flame

rapidly reacting body of gas, commonly a mixture of air and a combustible gas, that gives off heat and, usually, light and is self-propagating. Flame propagation is explained by two theories: heat conduction and diffusion. In heat conduction, heat flows from the flame front, the area in a flame in which combustion occurs, to the inner cone, the area containing the unburned mixture of fuel and air. When the unburned mixture is heated to its ignition temperature, it combusts in the flame front, and heat from that reaction again flows to the inner cone, thus creating a cycle of self-propagation. In diffusion, a similar cycle begins when reactive molecules produced in the flame front diffuse into the inner cone and ignite the mixture. A mixture can support a flame only above some minimum and below some maximum percentage of fuel gas. These percentages are called the lower and upper limits of inflammability. Mixtures of natural gas and air, for example, will not propagate flame if the proportion of gas is less than about 4 percent or more than about 15 percent.

Learn more about flame with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Cite This Source

Example sentences

Onlookers admire a shoulder-mounted flame instrument and its scantily clad fire

player.

What's been overlooked is the fact that the invisible gases produced in a fire

can be much more dangerous than any flame.

Thatching, which nearly died out because of the fire danger, is more popular

now that anti-flame treatments are available.

It is equivalent to a fire producing more volatile flame material.