• Inflame

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -eɪm

    Origin

    From Middle English *enflammen, enflawmen, from Old French enflammer ("to inflame"), from Latin inflammō ("to kindle, set on fire", verb.), from in ("in, on") + flamma ("flame"), equivalent to - + flame.

    Full definition of inflame

    Verb

    1. To set on fire; to kindle; to cause to burn, flame, or glow.
      • ChapmanWe should have made retreat
        By light of the inflamed fleet.
    2. (figuratively) To kindle or intensify, as passion or appetite; to excite to an excessive or unnatural action or heat.to inflame desire
      • Miltonmore, it seems, inflamed with lust than rage
      • DrydenBut, O inflame and fire our hearts.
    3. To provoke to anger or rage; to exasperate; to irritate; to incense; to enrage.
      • ShakespeareIt will inflame you; it will make you mad.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 12, 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. 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.
      • AddisonA friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes.
      • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, 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. To grow morbidly hot, congested, or painful; to become angry or incensed.
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