Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To flame up with a bright, wavering light.
  • intransitive verb To burst into intense, sudden flame.
  • intransitive verb To erupt or intensify suddenly.
  • intransitive verb To become suddenly angry. Used with up.
  • intransitive verb To make a sudden angry verbal attack. Used with out.
  • intransitive verb To expand or open outward in shape.
  • intransitive verb To cause to flame up.
  • intransitive verb To signal with a blaze of light.
  • noun A brief wavering blaze of light.
  • noun A device that produces a bright light for signaling, illumination, or identification.
  • noun An outbreak, as of emotion or activity.
  • noun An expanding or opening outward.
  • noun An unwanted reflection within an optical system or the resultant fogging of the image.
  • noun A solar flare.
  • noun Football A short pass to a back running toward the sideline.
  • noun Baseball A fly ball hit a short distance into the outfield.
  • noun Medicine An area of redness on the skin surrounding the primary site of infection or irritation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To shine out with sudden and unsteady light, luster, or splendor; give out a dazzling light.
  • 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.
  • To open or spread outward, like the mouth of a trumpet.
  • To incline outward from a perpendicular, as a ship's sides or bows, or any similar formation: opposed to tumble home.
  • To cause to burn with a flaring flame; hence, to display glaringly; exhibit in an ostentatious manner.
  • noun A glaring, unsteady, wavering light; a glare: as, the flare of an expiring candle.
  • noun 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.
  • noun In photography, same as ghost, 8.
  • noun Ostentation.
  • noun Synonyms Glare, etc. See flame, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To burn with an unsteady or waving flame.
  • intransitive verb To shine out with a sudden and unsteady light; to emit a dazzling or painfully bright light.
  • intransitive verb To shine out with gaudy colors; to flaunt; to be offensively bright or showy.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To be exposed to too much light.
  • intransitive verb To open or spread outwards; to project beyond the perpendicular
  • intransitive verb [Colloq.] to become suddenly heated or excited; to burst into a passion.
  • noun Leaf of lard.
  • noun An unsteady, broad, offensive light.
  • noun A spreading outward.
  • noun (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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sudden outburst of emotion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

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Examples

  • The new release features a three-way color grade filter with built-in keying and masking tools, a video noise reduction tool, an OpenGL particle engine, and real-time title flare and luma glow effects.

    Macsimum News 2010

  • Just then, a bright flash of light from some kind of flare is fired by Huang.

    Darker than Black ep 22 « Undercover 2007

  • Although I applaud John Arquilla's concerns, I would also suggest that the warning "flare" is not too late.

    Letters to the Editor 2005

  • Although I applaud John Arquilla's concerns, I would also suggest that the warning "flare" is not too late.

    Letters to the Editor 2005

  • There's also the added community backlash which can be seen indirectly in flare ups like the Fox News-Mass Effect fiasco et.al. We can also see echoes of Rockstar's decision to leave the content in in some of the more embarassing and alienating aspects of recent marketing schemes.

    A Pricey Cup Of Joe SVGL 2009

  • October 1999: another solar flare is once again lighting up the night skies of New York.

    MOVIE REVIEW: Frequency 2009

  • Mature migrating ducks and geese are VERY smart and will flare from a black shotgun if it where they can see it.

    would it be worth the extra money and get a shotgun that is camo or would a black one be fine? 2010

  • Mature migrating ducks and geese are VERY smart and will flare from a black shotgun if it where they can see it.

    would it be worth the extra money and get a shotgun that is camo or would a black one be fine? 2010

  • At least one of the two of them is capable of startlingly evocative language: Brian Jones's contributions to "Let It Bleed" were the "last flare from the shipwreck."

    So You Want To Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star Andrew Stuttaford 2010

  • This time, a magical flare is wreaking havoc on the city, and Kate has to protect Julie, a 12-year-old girl who may be at the center of a war between Celtic deities.

    Magic Burns Jes Battis 2008

Comments

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  • It always brings my mind back to my favorite now basically cult-status flick, "Office Space" and how it described what Jennifer Aniston wore on her person as a restaurant employee in the film.

    January 19, 2007

  • Isn't that "flair?"

    January 19, 2007

  • Song quotation on copper.

    April 27, 2009

  • Flare, a portmanteau of flame and glare.

    March 8, 2020