noun
flame
flaym
noun
1
The visible, glowing part of a fire.
"A single candle flame lit the room."
"The campfire flames crackled through the night."
2
A short-lived but intense romantic relationship, or the person in it.
"He ran into an old flame from college at the reunion."
verb
1
To post an angry, insulting message online, or to burn with visible flames.
"The forum thread got flamed within minutes of posting."
"The dry logs flamed up quickly."
How to Use Flame
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe burning, glowing part of fire — also used for an old romance, or for aggressively insulting someone online.
Common pairings
burst into flame
an old flame
flame war
Word Forms
flamed past tense, flames plural, flames singular
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Etymology
From Old French flame/flambe, both going back to Latin flamma, "flame," from a very old Indo-European root meaning "to shine or gleam."