Word: inflame Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English inflammen, enflamen, enflaumen (“to set (something) on fire; to be on fire; (figurative) to enrage (someone); to become enraged; to incite (someone) to do evil; to inspire (someone); (medicine) to cause inflammation of (a body part)”), from Old French enflamer, enflammer (“to set (something) on fire, inflame; to be on fire; (figurative) to fuel (a debate, hatred, etc.)”) (modern French enflammer), from Latin inflammāre, the present active infinitive of inflammō (“to set (something) on fire, inflame; (figurative) to excite (someone)”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘into; to, towards’) + flammō (“to set (something) on fire; to be on fire; (figurative) to incite (someone)”) (from flamma (“flame, fire; (figurative) passion”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰl̥g- (“to blaze, burn; to glow, shine; bright flame, fire”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). By surface analysis, in- (prefix meaning ‘into; to, towards’) + flame. Pronunciation: /ɪnˈfleɪm/, [ɪɱ-], [-ˈfleɪ̯m] 1. To set (someone or something) on fire; to cause (someone or something) to burn, flame, or glow; to kindle. Labels: transitive Example: [Jesus, you] art the eternal Orator, vvhich both outvvardlie talkeſt to mankinde by thy Goſpel, and invvardlie in our harts inflameſt thy light vvhich is true confeſſion, faith, and comfort in thee: […] Example: Novv keep your holy vvord, go meet the French, / And from his holineſſe vſe all your povver / To ſtop their marches 'fore vve are enflam'd: / Our diſcontented Counties doe reuolt: / Our people quarrell vvith obedience, / Svvearing allegiance, and the loue of ſoule / To ſtranger-bloud, to forren Royalty; […] 2. To cause (something) to appear bright or red, as if on fire; to brighten, to redden. Labels: broadly, transitive Example: I vvill my ſelf conduct thee on thy VVay, / VVhen next the Southing Sun inflames the Day; / VVhen the dry Herbage thirſts for Devvs in vain, / And Sheep, in Shades, avoid the parching Plain. Example: Even now we see the redness of the torches / Inflame the night to the eastward, and the clarions / Gasp (?) to us on the wind's wave. 3. To cause (the body or a body part) to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to cause inflammation, including abnormal heat, pain, redness, swelling, etc., in (the body or a body part). Labels: broadly, transitive Example: to inflame the eyes by overwork Example: His lyver is al enflamed with drinkyng of hote wynes: […] 4. To cause (someone, or their heart, mind, etc.) to feel strong desire or other feelings; to excite (someone) to great passion; specifically, to cause (someone) to feel anger or rage; to anger, to enrage, to incense. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: You are not VVood, you are not Stones, but men: / And being men, hearing the VVill of Cæſar, / It vvill inflame you, it vvill make you mad; […] Example: Honour, Revenge, Contempt and Shame, / Did equally their breaſts enflame. 5. To excite or intensify (a feeling, such as an appetite or passion), especially to an excessive or unnatural level. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: to inflame desire Example: Yet ſome report, by caſualtie of riding, or like accident, his bodie in ſome ſort became imperfect. VVhich notvvithſtanding quenched not, but rather inflamed his daring courage, maliciously looking vpon the vertue and perfections of other mens minds and bodies. 6. To cause (something intangible, such as a dispute or violence, or hunger or thirst) to become more serious or worse; to aggravate, to exacerbate. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: They often drank of this stream, which had such a particular quality in it, that though it refreshed them for a time, it rather inflamed than quenched their thirst. Example: A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. 7. To increase (the price or quantity of something). Labels: figuratively, obsolete, transitive Example: [T]his new corporation of druggists had inflamed the bills of mortality, and puzzled the college of physicians with diseases, for which they neither knew a name or cure. Example: As you ſay, vve paſſengers are to be taxed to pay all theſe fineries. I have often ſeen a good ſideboard, or a marble chimney-piece, tho' not actually put in the bill, enflame a reckoning confoundedly. 8. To burst into flames, to catch fire. Labels: intransitive Example: [A]s the Oile vvaſteth, and deſcendeth, ſo the Top of the Turret, by little and little, filleth vvith Aire; vvhich is cauſed by the Rarefaction of the Oile by the Heat. It vvere vvorthy the Obſeruation, to make a Hole, in the Top of the Turret, and to trie, vvhen the Oile is almoſt conſumed, vvhether the Aire made of the Oile, if you put to it a Flame of a Candle, in the letting of it forth, vvill Enflame. 9. Of a person's body or body part: to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to be affected by inflammation. Labels: broadly, intransitive Example: [S]ometime the liuer of the Fox inflameth, and then it is not cured but by the vlcerous blood flovving to the skin, and that euill blood cauſeth the Alopecia, or falling avvay of the haire, for vvhich cauſe (as is already ſaid) a Foxes skin is little vvorth that is taken in the ſummer time. 10. To become very hot. Labels: broadly, intransitive, obsolete Example: The vvind vvas favourable a vvhile; but ere long becalmed, vvhereby the ayre inflam'd, and Sea gave a fierie reflection; […] 11. To feel strong desire or other feelings; to be passionate; specifically, to feel anger or rage. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: I fled, but he [Death] purſu'd (though more, it ſeems, / Inflam'd vvith luſt then rage) and ſvvifter far, […] Example: [W]hen the ſeruants of the King had ſeene, / Their fell diſdaine, mixt vvith an enuious ſpleene, / Inflam'd; They queſtion'd hovv he durſt vvithſtand / The iuſt performance of the Kings Command: […]