Also 4 flammande, flaumbeand, 5 flawmand. [f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That flames; in flames or on fire, as a combustible; esp. in flaming sword.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiii. 150. Þe flawmand swerde þat Godd ordaynd rare before þe entree, for na man schuld entre.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIII. ix.
| Thus in flamynge tonges all aboute I flye | |
| Throughe the worlde wyth my winges swyftly. |
1611. Bible, Gen. iii. 24. So he droue out the man: and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned euery way, to keepe the way of the tree of life.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 137. A deluge of Barbarians; who massacred the males of an age to bear arms, and drove away the beautiful females, with the spoil, and cattle, of the flaming villages.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 88.
| Nor had thunder, | |
| Nor yon volcano’s flaming fountains, | |
| Nor any power above or under | |
| Ever made us mute with wonder. |
fig. 1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.), 191. A flawmyng vertu dwellys yn þe hert.
1509. Hawes, Joyf. Medit., 17. O flambynge honour of euery hardy herte.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VIII. ii. 16. O these flaming spirits!
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 264. The flaming hopes of its friends, the wild and desperate prophecies of its antagonists, are found to be each as ill-founded as the other.
† b. Flaming chapel = F. chapelle ardente: a chapel or chamber thickly set with lighted tapers.
1802. F. W. Blagdon, Paris as it was, II. lxvii. 318. For persons of the richest class, a flaming chapel was constructed at the entrance of the house. This chapel was hung with black cloth, and in it was placed the corpse, surrounded by lighted torches.
2. Burning hot, inflamed, fiery.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 839.
| But if the Vest they wear, | |
| Red Blisters rising on their Paps appear, | |
| And flaming Carbuncles, and noisom Sweat, | |
| And clammy Dews, that loathsome Lice beget. |
1786. Burns, ‘Once fondly lov’d.’
| And when you read the simple artless rhymes, | |
| One friendly sigh for him—he asks no more,— | |
| Who, distant burns in flaming torrid climes, | |
| Or haply lies beneath th’ Atlantic roar. |
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 354.
| As some labourer ears close-cluster’d lustily lopping, | |
| Under a flaming sun, mows fields ripe-yellow in harvest, | |
| So, in fury of heart, shall death’s stern reaper, Achilles, | |
| Charge Troy’s children afield and fell them grimly with iron. |
b. quasi-adv., as flaming-hot. lit. and fig.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 32. The wind less’ned, and weather grew flaming hot; no Stove or Sudatory exceeding it: it made us very faint, yet having past through as bad, it seemed lesse torment to us.
1681. Baxter, Apol. Nonconf. Min., 111. Is this flaming-hot Disputer so much better acquainted with us, than we are with our selves and one another?
3. transf. Emitting rays of light, flashing, glowing, brilliant, † Flaming fly = FIREFLY.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1468. Alle þe fruyt in þo formes of flaumbeande gemmes.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 198. Ffesauntez enflureschit in flammande silver.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3986. Hir ene flamyng fresshe, as any fyne stones.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 116. Our English Glow-wormes, as well as the American, or flaming-flyes, have a luminous juice in their tailes which shines in the dark.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 187. He [Cain] introduced the worship of the sun, as the best resemblance he could find of the glory of the Lord, which was wont to appear in a flaming light.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, III. vii. The large yellow eye grew more flaming and fiery.
b. in regard to colour: Resembling flame, very bright or vivid.
c. 1450. Crt. of Love, 793.
| Her mouth is short, and shut in little space, | |
| Flaming somedele, not over red, I mene, | |
| With pregnant lippes, and thicke to kisse, percase. |
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 297. They [Bannana’s] ripen though you crop them immaturely; and from a dark-greene, mellow into a flaming yellow: the rynd peeles off very easily; the fruit put into your mouth, dissolves and yeelds a most incomparable relish.
1718. Prior, Solomon, I. xxxvi.
| Anon at Noon in flaming Yellow bright, | |
| And chusing Sable for the peaceful Night. |
1863. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., II. i. 3. The wild flowers in the hedgerows, the distant glimpses of country, the light clouds floating in the summer sky, the flaming poppies among the ripening corn, the noisy fowl upon the margin of a pond, the shaggy horses looking over farm-yard gates,—every object, animate and inanimate, between Hazlewood and Tolldale, was the subject of Miss Mason’s remark.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. XVI. xii. 282. Voltaire has used his flamingest colours on this occasion, being indeed dreadfully provoked and chagrined.
† c. Of a person; Gaudy, ‘loud,’ flaring.
1781. R. King, London Spy, 95. A serjeant of the guards entered … with a flaming wench.
4. fig. Highly colored, highflown; startling, extravagant.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 115. He hauing colour enough, and the other higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xi. (1840), 191. I had heard some flaming stories of Captain Avery, and the fine things he had done in the Indies.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., x. (1813), 224. The good lady who showed us the house did give him a most flaming character!
1850. Prescott, Peru, II. 6. This intelligence spread an additional gloom over the Spaniards; which was not dispelled by the flaming pictures now given by the natives of the riches of the land, and of the state and magnificence of the monarch in his distant capital among the mountains.
1868. Helps, Realmah, II. xvii. 287. There comes out a flaming attack against some poor man, based upon certain statements.
5. Flagrant, glaring, monstrous. ? Obs.
1706. Collier, Reply to Dr. Filmer (1730), 412. The most flaming Instances of Vice.
1737. Waterland, Eucharist, 583. Neither, indeed, is it credible, that so knowing a person as Chrysostom would have represented it as a flaming absurdity for a noncommunicant to be present during the whole solemnity, had the custom of the Church allowed it in the co-standers, who were non-communicants.
6. Like waving flame in appearance; flamboyant.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XI. 192. Vith baneris richt freschly flawmand.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2176/4. A Silver Hilted Sword, with the Blade waved or flaming.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., ix. 177. The blade of this sword not uncommonly affected a wavy or flaming (flamboyante) outline.
Hence Flamingly adv.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xx. 37. How quaint and flamingly amorous [is Solomon] in the Canticles.
1681. Baxter, Acc. Sherlocke, v. 203. Why would he meddle (and so flamingly meddle) with what he understands not?
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, I. iv. (1878), 31. This tower rose to a height corresponding with the roof of the mansion; and was embellished on the side facing the house with a flamingly gilt dial, peering, like an impudent observer, at all that passed within doors.
1888. C. F. Woolson, A Pink Villa, in Harper’s Mag., LXXVII. Nov., 838/1. I know you are flamingly patriotic.
