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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

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.
   • 1611, George Chapman, The Iliad

     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, figurative) To kindle or intensify (a feeling, as passion or appetite); to excite to an excessive or unnatural action or heat.

   to inflame desire

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     more, it seems, inflamed with lust than rage

   • 1690, John Dryden, Creator Spirit! by whose aid

     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.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     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.
   • 1712 June 18, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele, “SATURDAY, June 7, 1712 [Julian calendar]”, in The Spectator, number 359; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition […], volume , New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     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

• provoke
• fire
• kindle
• irritate
• exasperate
• incense
• enrage
• anger
• excite
• arouse

Related terms

• inflammable
• inflammatory
• inflammation

Translations

to set on fire

• Bulgarian: запалвам (bg) (zapalvam)
• Finnish: sytyttää (fi)
• French: allumer (fr)
• German: anzünden (de), entflammen (de)
• Irish: adhain

• Italian: incendiare (it)
• Sardinian:

  Logudorese: affoghizare

to kindle or intensify

• Bulgarian: разпалвам (bg) (razpalvam)
• Finnish: herättää (fi)

• German: anregen (de)

to provoke to anger or rage

• Finnish: lietsoa (fi)
• German: aufregen (de), erzürnen (de)

• Maori: whakakoikoi

to put in a state of inflammation

• Bulgarian: възпалявам (vǎzpaljavam)
• Czech: zanít
• Esperanto: inflamigi
• Finnish: tulehduttaa (fi)

• German: sich entzünden
• Portuguese: inflamar (pt)

to exaggerate

• Bulgarian: преувеличавам (bg) (preuveličavam)
• Finnish: liioitella (fi)

• German: aufpeitschen

to grow morbidly hot, congested, or painful

• Esperanto: inflami
• Finnish: tulehtua (fi)

• German: aufbrausen

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

• feminal

---

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.