a. Forms: 5–7 flammy, 6 flambye, 7 flamie, 6– flamy. [f. FLAME sb. + -Y1.]
1. Of or pertaining to flame or flames; consisting of flames; beset with flames.
1494. Fabyan, Chron. VI. clxiii. 156. And lyke as the hydde fyre in processe breketh oute and shewyth great lyght and flammy blase, euen so dyd thys couerde malyce at the laste breke oute, to great ire and open wrath.
1558. Bp. Watson, Sev. Sacram., xvi. 100. The fyerye floude that runneth before the horryble iudgement seate of Christe dothe ouerflowe with his flambye waues.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., II. (1626), 224.
| But when he saw her burne, foure times assaild | |
| To sack the flamie Pile: as often faild. |
1752. H. M[oore], To Memory of Dr. Doddridge, vi.
| Rapt in a flamy Car, sublime, he flew, | |
| The flamy Car, fire-breathing Coursers drew. |
1814. Cary, Dante, Paradise, XXV. 133.
| The flamy circle at that voice So rested, and the mingling sound was still. |
2. Resembling flame; flame-like.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 30. As for liuing Creatures, it is certaine, their Vitall Spirits are a Substance Compounded of an Airy and Flamy Matter.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 47. A flammy rednesse will orespread the heavens.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 22.
| The fring, long gown, and flamy vail He wears, | |
| Who Mars his Shields staid with close thong oft bears | |
| With jolts and sweat! |
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XIV. 399.
| And sudden hyacinths the turf bestrow, | |
| And flamy crocus made the mountain glow. |
1801. Southey, Thalaba, IX. vii.
| Her flamy hairs curl up, | |
| All living, like the Meteor’s locks of light! |
1875. H. R. Proctor, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), III. 94/2. Should the aurora be flamy, and shoot out rays, there is good reason for assuming a disruptive discharge of electricity.
fig. a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xvii. 176 b.
| My thoughts imprisonde in my secreat woes, | |
| With flamie breathes doo issue oft in sound. |
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), IV. 3. A very flamy fuliginous set of doctrines,—such as the human mind, superadding Anabaptistry to Sansculottism, can make some attempt to conceive.
† 3. Performed by the agency of flame. Obs.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, VII. 69.
| His body I’ll resign | |
| To be disposed by his friends in flamy funerals. |
1635. Swan, Spec. M., vi. § 2 (1643), 202. They [watrie bodies] can quell the rage of the hottest element, and keep our mansions from cinders, or a flamie conversion into ashes.
4. Comb., as flamy-glittering.
1581. Sidney, Astr. & Stella, lxxvi.
| But, lo, while I do speake, it groweth noone with me, | |
| Her flamie-glistring lights increase with time and place, | |
| My heart cries, oh! it burnes, mine eyes now dazled be; | |
| No wind, no shade can coole: what helpe then in my case? |
