Talk:flare

Some meanings are missing:

1. verb meaning "to rise"

2. noun referring to what's dropped from military aircraft to distract heat seekers.— This comment was unsigned.

1. I am unfamiliar with that use and can't find it in any dictionary I've looked at. can you give an example?
2. It seems like a special example of an attention-getting flare. The "attention" is the missile's. DCDuring TALK 18:43, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

1. "Here, outside the portion of the hall given over to the Prince’s dais, the building flared, giving Jimmy an extra two feet of wall at a right angle to the wall he hugged." - from Silverthorn, by Raymond E. Feist.
2. I guess that reasoning makes sense. Still there can be a separate entry because its purpose is to get the "attention" away from the author of the flare. — This comment was unsigned.

1. I read flare as meaning "widen" in that passage, consistent with the geometry implied in the balance of the passage about his efforts to climb the wall. DCDuring TALK 18:04, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
2. It is a heat-generating device that serves as a decoy. A decoy, like chaff or a decoy duck, that does not use heat (or intense light) is not a flare. DCDuring TALK 18:04, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology states that the origin is unknown. I note that there exists a verb in Norwegian, flara^[1], which means 'to flare'. Its etymology is Old Norse flaðra, which apparently meant 'to flatter' (though I don't have my ON dictionary with me, so I cannot check for other meanings; also mentioned in the etymology section of English flatter). Just an observation. --Njardarlogar (talk) 18:52, 3 November 2013 (UTC)