flare

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A sudden bright light.
  2. A source of brightly burning light or intense heat.
  3. A type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light without an explosion, used to attract attention in an emergency, to illuminate an area, or as a decoy.
  4. A flame produced by a burn-off of waste gas (flare gas) from a flare tower (or flare stack), typically at an oil refinery.
  5. A sudden eruption or outbreak; a flare-up.
  6. A widening of an object with an otherwise roughly constant width.
  7. The increase in width of most ship hulls with increasing height above the waterline.
  8. Bell-bottom trousers.
  9. The transition from downward flight to level flight just before landing.
  10. A low fly ball that is hit in the region between the infielders and the outfielders.
  11. A route run by the running back, releasing toward the sideline and then slightly arcing upfield looking for a short pass.
  12. Ellipsis of lens flare.
verb
  1. To cause to burn; in particular, to burn off excess gas.
  2. To cause inflammation; to inflame.
  3. To open outward in shape.
  4. To (operate an aircraft to) transition from downward flight to level flight just before landing.
  5. To blaze brightly.
  6. To shine out with a sudden and unsteady light; to emit a dazzling or painfully bright light.
  7. To shine out with gaudy colours; to be offensively bright or showy.
  8. To suddenly happen or intensify.
  9. To suddenly erupt in anger.
  10. To be exposed to too much light.

Pronunciation

/flɛə̯/ /flɛɚ̯/ /fleː/ en-au-flare.ogg /fleə/ /fliə/ /fleɹ/ /flɜː(ɹ)/

Word forms

flare flares flaring flared

Etymology

Origin unknown, first recorded in the mid 16th century, probably related to Latin flagrō (“to burn”). Norwegian flara (“to blaze; to flaunt in gaudy attire”) has a similar meaning, but the English word predates it. Possibly related to Middle High German vlederen (“to flutter”), represented by modern German flattern. The noun is derived from the verb.

Translations

Bulgarian: ярка светлина Bulgarian: сияние Bulgarian: разкрояване Dutch: vuurpijl Dutch: brede broekspijp Finnish: soihtu Finnish: valoammus Finnish: hätäsoihtu Finnish: leveä kohta Finnish: levenemä Finnish: levike Finnish: levennys French: fusée lumineuse German: Fackel German: Leuchtfackel German: Bengalo German: Leuchtsignal German: Leuchtkugel German: Leuchtzeichen German: Stulp German: Rand German: Bördelrand German: Flansch German: Aufbördelung German: Trichterrand Greek: φωτοβολίδα Irish: lasair Irish: spré Italian: bagliore Norwegian Bokmål: fakkel Norwegian Nynorsk: fakkel Polish: blask Polish: szwedy Polish: klosz Portuguese: sinalizador Romanian: semnal luminos Romanian: evazare Russian: вспы́шка Russian: взрыв Russian: вспо́лох Russian: расшире́ние Russian: растру́б Russian: развальцо́вка Russian: клёш Swedish: lysraket Tagalog: ansisilaw Turkish: işaret ışığı Welsh: ffagliad Welsh: fflach Welsh: ymlediad Welsh: fflêr Serbo-Croatian: trapez
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.