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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

aflare en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /əˈfleɹ/ (Scotland)
  • /əˈfliə/ New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
  • /əˈfleə/ (New-Zealand) without the cheer–chair merger
  • /əˈflɛə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /əˈflɜː(ɹ)/ Lancashire, fair–fur merger
  • /əˈfleː/ (Australia)
  • /əˈflɛɹ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-)der. English a- English flare English aflare From a- + flare.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Flaring (blazing or shining brightly or suddenly; also figuratively, of a strong emotion).
    • 1886, Mary Noailles Murfree (as Charles Egbert Craddock), In the Clouds, Chapter 17, p. 248, the flaming base of the opposite mountain, all luridly aflare in the windy dusk
    • Ho! Get to lair! The sun’s aflare / Behind the breathing grass: 1895, Rudyard Kipling, “Letting in the Jungle”, in The Second Jungle Book, London: Macmillan, page 59:
    • [The dragon] kindly breathed out a little flame, which set the packet aflare for a moment. 1919, Stella Benson, chapter 7, in Living Alone, London: Macmillan, published 2020, page 184:
    • […] he had not wanted to see the man when perhaps his blood was running hot and his temper aflare. 1988, Jory Sherman, chapter 4, in Horne’s Law, New York: Walker and Company, page 30:
  2. (not-comparable) Illuminated (with something blazing or shining).
    • […] at last they reached a corridor which was aflare with dancing torchlight. 1968, Michael Moorcock, “The Dreaming City”, in The Stealer of Souls and Other Stories, London: Mayflower Books, page 19:
    • […] Old Pye Street, Peter’s Street, and Duck Lane were aflare with the coarse lights of open naphtha lamps, 1897, Hall Caine, The Christian, London: Heinemann, Book 3, Chapter 15, p. 331:
    • He used to tell me how you two used to go down to the harbor and watch the big liners come in at night, all aflare with lights through the Golden Gate. 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: George H. Doran, Part 6, p. 402:
  3. (not-comparable) Flaring (opening outward).
    • ballet skirts aflare 1921, Edna Ferber, chapter 7, in The Girls, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, page 129:
    • The black horse paced slowly out into the open, neck arched, nostrils aflare, eyes rolling. 1983, Ahdaf Soueif, Aisha, London: Black Swan, published 1985, page 163:
    • To balance like a bird with wings aflare, 1960, Vassar Miller, “Return”, in Wage War on Silence, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, page 58:

Synonyms

aflame · alight · ablaze · afire