1 [V] to burn brightly, but usually for only a short time or not steadily:
The match flared and went out. * The fire flared into life. * (figurative) Colour flared in her cheeks. * His dark eyes flared angrily.
2 [V] ~ (up) (especially of anger and violence) to suddenly start or become much stronger
SYNERUPT:
Violence flared when the police moved in. * Tempers flared towards the end of the meeting.
relatednounFLARE-UP(1)
3 to say sth in an angry and aggressive way:
[Vspeech] 'You should have told me!' she flared at him. [also V]
4 [V] (of clothes) to become wider towards the bottom:
The sleeves are tight to the elbow, then flare out.
5 if a person or animal flares their NOSTRILS (= the openings at the end of the nose), or if their nostrils flare, they become wider, especially as a sign of anger:
[V] The horse backed away, its nostrils flaring with fear. [also VN]
PHRASALVERBS
flare up
1 (of flames, a fire, etc.) to suddenly start burning more brightly:
He put more logs on the fire and watched it flare up again.
relatednounFLARE-UP(3)
2 (of a person) to suddenly become angry:
She flares up at the slightest provocation.
relatednounFLARE-UP(1)
3 (of an illness, injury, etc.) to suddenly start again or become worse:
His eczema has flared up again.
relatednounFLARE-UP(2)
Part of speech: noun
1 [usuallysing.] a bright but unsteady light or flame that does not last long:
The flare of the match lit up his face.
2 a device that produces a bright flame, used especially as a signal; a flame produced in this way:
The ship sent up distress flares to attract the attention of the coastguard. * A flare lit up the sky.
3 a shape that becomes gradually wider:
a skirt with a slight flare
4 (flares) (BrE also flared trousers) [pl.] (informal) trousers/pants that become very wide at the bottom of the legs:
a pair of flares
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for flare is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is flare a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, flare is tagged as verb.
Does flare appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — flare appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
