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)

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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?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, OCLC 614803194; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], volume (please specify the book number), new edition, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, OCLC 987451361:

     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

   • 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 Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] 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 IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] 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

(set on fire): kindle, fire (intensify or excite (feeling)): provoke, kindle, arouse, excite (provoke a person to anger): incense, irritate, enrage, exasperate, anger

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)

• Galician: asañar (gl), inflamar (gl)
• German: aufbrausen

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• feminal

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Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Brazil) /ĩˈflɐ̃.mi/, [ĩˈflɐ̃.mi]

• IPA^(key): (Portugal) /ĩˈflɐ.mɨ/, [ĩˈflɐ.mɨ]

• Hyphenation: in‧fla‧me
• Rhymes: -ɐmɨ, -ɐ̃mi

Verb

inflame

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of inflamar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of inflamar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of inflamar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of inflamar

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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.