inflame
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɪnˈfleɪm/
Verb

inflame (inflames, present participle inflaming; past and past participle inflamed)

  1. (transitive) To set on fire; to kindle; to cause to burn, flame, or glow.
    • We should have made retreat / By light of the inflamed fleet.
  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: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      more, it seems, inflamed with lust than rage
    • 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.
  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.
    • 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 Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: aufpeitschen
Translations
  • German: aufbrausen



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