Flare v.

Also 6 fleare; 7 flaire, 7–9 flair. [Of unknown etymology; the mod.Norw, flara ‘to blaze, to flaunt in gaudy attire’ (Ivar Aasen) has been compared; but sense 5, with which this agrees, is app. a somewhat late development.]

  1.  trans. † a. To spread out (hair); to display in an expanded form. Also with out. Obs.

c. 1550.  Robin Conscience, 289, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 244.

1553.  Becon, Jewel Joy, J vj b. It is inough for chast and pure maydes to weare cleane and simple apparell, as a testimony of the vncorruption & cleannes boeth of theyr mynd & bodye wythout the flaringe out and coleryng of theyr heare, w^tout the payntyng of theyr faces, without the puttyng on of wanton and light aray, wherby they be entised rather to prid & whordome then to humilitie, shamfastnes, & cleannes of life.

  b.  To spread out to view, display; occas. with mixture of sense 5. Hence, To wave to and fro (or round). To flare a handkerchief (slang): to whisk it out of a person’s pocket.

a. 1774.  Goldsm., Surv. Exper. Philos. (1776), II. 182. In seeing a flaming torch, if flared round in a circle, it appears as a ring of fire.

1838.  Poe, A. G. Pym, Wks. 1864, IV. 116–7. We hailed the glorious sight [a sail] with a long, although feeble shout of rapture; and began instantly to make every signal in our power, by flaring the shirts in the air, leaping as high as our weak condition would permit, and even by hallooing with all the strength of our lungs.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 411/1. Just after that I flared it (whisked the handkerchief out).

1862.  Burton, Book-Hunter (1863), 292. Surtees was not certainly among those who flare their qualities before the world—he was to a peculiar degree addicted, as we shall shortly see, to hiding his light under a bushel.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, 96. After hardening the drill by flaring it in the air, it should be let down all but the extreme cutting edge.

  † 2.  intr. Of hair, etc.: To spread out conspicuously, to stream or wave in the wind. Obs.

1579–80.  North, Plutarch (1676), 667. This Lady … shewing her mourning Apparell, and hair of her head flaring about her eyes.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. vi. 41.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. ii.

1676.  Hobbes, Iliad (1677), 336.

1837.  Cooper, Recoll. Europe, II. 131. Her cap flared in the wind, her black eyes flashed with pleasure, and her dark ringlets streamed behind her, like so many silken pennants.

  † 3.  To display oneself conspicuously. Obs.

1633.  T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter i. 6. The daughters of Moab and Midian were brought before the Israelites; light housewives, dancing, frisking, and flaring; their carriage promising tractableness enough, if the other would come on: so were they tempted to wantonness with those professed strumpets, and by that means to offer up Baal-peor.

1709.  Prior, Hans Carvel, 90.

  4.  a. intr. Of the sides of a vessel: To swell or bulge out gradually upwards; also, to flare over.

1644.  Sea-man’s Dict., 40. When a ship is a little howled in neere the water, and above that the work doth hang over againe … they say, that the worke doth Flaire over.

1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, I. viii. 90. They [canoes] have thwart pieces from side to side about three inches thick, and their gunwales flare outwards, so as to cast off the surges of the waves.

1883.  W. C. Conant, The Brooklyn Bridge, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. July, 934/2. It will be best to have the sides of our oblong diving-bell flare a little, and on the inner side to taper them to a sort of edge (well shod with heavy iron), so as to make room for the laborers within to excavate conveniently to the very extremity of the dimensions of their diving-bell.

  b.  trans. To cause to spread gradually outwards.

1857.  Colquhoun, Compl. Oarsman’s Guide, 1. A skiff … can be more conveniently flared, which gives buoyancy.

1858.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, ii. § 61. These pipes are then flared out so as to present a large cooling surface; after which they are united into one again, through which the water, being now cooled, returns of its own accord to the caldron.

1888.  Woodgate, Boating, 143. The gunwale was accordingly flared out wide at these points, above the waterline.

  5.  intr. Of a candle, lamp, etc.: To burn with a spreading, unsteady flame, as when blown by the wind; to shine as such a flame does; to glow with or as with flame. Also with about, away, out, and quasi-trans. with cognate obj. To flare into; to pass with a flare into.

1632, 1633, 1661.  [see FLARING ppl. a.]

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Flare, to Shine or glare like a Comet or Beacon.

1727.  Bailey, vol. II., Flaring, wasting or consuming wastfully; as a Candle.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxvi. The wind, which poured through the narrow cavities in the wall, made the torch flare, and it threw a stronger gleam upon the grim and sallow countenance of Barnardine, and discovered more fully the desolation of the place.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, XII. xviii.

1819.  Shelley, Medusa, 32.

1859.  Tennyson, Lancelot & Elaine, 1020.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ii. § 4. 72. At harvest tide, town and hamlet flaring into ashes along the French border fulfilled the Conqueror’s vow.

1879.  J. Beerbohm, Patagonia, viii. 132. Another inconvenience of not having some bush to camp under was that the fire was completely at the mercy of the wind, and flared away without emitting any warmth, blinding those who sat round it with smoke, and making it very difficult to cook anything properly.

  transf. and fig.  1837.  J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1839), I. xi. 165. Before the flame of religion in the heart is purified and strengthened by long practice and experience, of course it will be capricious in its motions, it will flare about (so to say) and flicker, and at times seem almost to go out.

1868.  Milman, Annals of S. Paul’s Cathedral, 305. The Queen’s Protestant zeal flared out against these idolatrous images, the Queen who had hardly given up her crucifix and lighted candles.

1871.  R. Ellis, Catullus, lxviii. 141.

1876.  Green, Stray Stud., 3. Afar off a gilded vane flares out above the grey Jacobean gables of Knoll.

  b.  nonce-use (with on). To go emitting flames.

1820.  Keats, Hyperion, I. 217.

  c.  trans. To light up with a flare. Also (causative) To cause (a candle) to burn with a flare. To flare out: to send forth by means of a flaring flame.

1745.  E. Haywood, The Female Spectator (1748), III. 309–10. I knew a gentleman once, who took such a fancy to rush-candles, that he would suffer no other to be burnt before him, had them set up in golden candlesticks, and quarrelled with all his best friends if they happened to move too hastily about the room, for fear of flaring or putting out his beloved lights.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxviii. (1856), 238. It is evidently no longer day, although the southwestern horizon is flared with red streaks, and a softening of yellow into the blue of heaven says that the sun is somewhere below it.

1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., liii. He flared the candle at me again, smoking my face and hair, and for an instant blinding me.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 6. 409. It was only on the last day of July that the sails of the Armada were seen from the Lizard, and the English beacons flared out their alarm along the coast.

  6.  To flare up: a. to burst into a sudden and temporary blaze; also fig. Hence of persons: b. to break out into sudden anger; c. to have a ‘jollification,’ make merry boisterously.

  a.  1846.  Thackeray, Crit. Rev., Wks. 1886. XXIII. 99. Because the sun shines above, is a man to warm himself and admire; or to despond because he can’t in his person flare up like the sun?

1867.  Smiles, Huguenots Eng., 428. They [persecutions] flared up again from time to time with increased fury, even after religion had become almost prostrate throughout France.

1886.  Sir F. H. Doyle, Remin., 388. The grass suddenly flared up, and the burning torrent swept down to a small river.

  b.  1840.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., 5 Oct. (1883), I. 119. It is just because I love you better than most people that I persecute you as I do; that I flare up when you touch a hair of my head (I mean my moral head).

1870.  Mrs. Riddell, Austin Friars, I. iv. 89. One has only to mention Mrs. Friars’ name, and you flare up like a bull at sight of a red cloak.

  c.  1869.  C. Keene, Let., in G. S. Layard Life, vi. (1892), 138. We flared up again last night, and hailed the New Year with the usual ceremonies.