flare

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To flame up with a bright, wavering light.
2. v. To burst into intense, sudden flame.
3. v. To erupt or intensify suddenly: Tempers flared at the meeting. His allergies flared up.
4. v. To become suddenly angry. Used with up: He flared up when she alluded to his financial difficulties.
5. v. To make a sudden angry verbal attack. Used with out: flared out at his accusers.
6. v. To expand or open outward in shape: a skirt that flares from the waist; nostrils that flared with anger.
7. v. To cause to flame up.
8. v. To signal with a blaze of light.
9. n. A brief wavering blaze of light.
10. n. A device that produces a bright light for signaling, illumination, or identification.
11. n. An outbreak, as of emotion or activity.
12. n. An expanding or opening outward.
13. n. An unwanted reflection within an optical system or the resultant fogging of the image.
14. n. A solar flare.
15. n. Football A short pass to a back running toward the sideline.
16. n. Baseball A fly ball hit a short distance into the outfield.
17. n. Medicine An area of redness on the skin surrounding the primary site of infection or irritation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To shine out with sudden and unsteady light, luster, or splendor; give out a dazzling light.
2. To waver; flutter; burn with an unsteady light, as flame in a current of air; hence, to flutter, as such flame does; flutter with gaudy show.
3. To open or spread outward, like the mouth of a trumpet.
4. To incline outward from a perpendicular, as a ship's sides or bows, or any similar formation: opposed to tumble home.
5. To cause to burn with a flaring flame; hence, to display glaringly; exhibit in an ostentatious manner.
6. n. A glaring, unsteady, wavering light; a glare: as, the flare of an expiring candle.
7. n. A spreading outward; a terminal or a continuous broadening, as of a trumpet or a lily, the side of a vessel of any kind, etc.
8. n. In photography, same as ghost, 8.
9. n. Ostentation.
10. n. Synonyms Glare, etc. See flame, n.

Wiktionary

1. n. A brightly burning light used to attract attention in an emergency, or to illuminate an area.
2. n. A widening of an object with an otherwise roughly constant width, e.g. on the lower legs of trousers and jeans.
3. n. aviation The transition from downward flight to level flight just before landing.
4. n. baseball A low fly ball that is hit in the region between the infielders and the outfielders
5. n. military An aircraft-released countermeasure to counter an infrared-homing missile.
6. v. intransitive To blaze brightly.
7. v. intransitive To burn unsteadily.
8. v. intransitive, often with “up” or “out” To burst out suddenly, as in anger.
9. v. transitive, intransitive To open outward in shape.
10. v. transitive To cause to burn.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To burn with an unsteady or waving flame.
2. v. To shine out with a sudden and unsteady light; to emit a dazzling or painfully bright light.
3. v. To shine out with gaudy colors; to flaunt; to be offensively bright or showy.
4. v. obsolete To be exposed to too much light.
5. v. To open or spread outwards; to project beyond the perpendicular
6. n. An unsteady, broad, offensive light.
7. n. A spreading outward.
8. n. (Photog.) A defect in a photographic objective such that an image of the stop, or diaphragm, appears as a fogged spot in the center of the developed negative.
9. n. Leaf of lard.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a sudden outburst of emotion
2. n. a sudden eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface; associated with sunspots and radio interference
3. n. (baseball) a fly ball hit a short distance into the outfield
4. v. burn brightly
5. v. become flared and widen, usually at one end
6. n. a sudden recurrence or worsening of symptoms
7. n. a burst of light used to communicate or illuminate
8. n. am unwanted reflection in an optical system (or the fogging of an image that is caused by such a reflection)
9. n. a shape that spreads outward
10. n. a short forward pass to a back who is running toward the sidelines
11. v. shine with a sudden light
12. n. a sudden burst of flame
13. n. reddening of the skin spreading outward from a focus of infection or irritation
14. v. erupt or intensify suddenly
15. n. a device that produces a bright light for warning or illumination or identification