flaming

Pluralflamings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   On fire and giving off visible flames.

   A flaming log rolled out of the fireplace onto the rug.

   The car was a flaming wreck within seconds of the collision.

   Similarburning, blazing, fiery, ablaze

   Note

   The literal fire behind the word's other meanings: the color sense and the passionate sense are this flame seen at a distance. It covers fire that is an accident, like burning debris that keeps a firefighter back. It also covers fire lit on purpose for show, as with the brandy set alight over a Christmas pudding in Stephanie Owen Reeder's Amazing Grace (2011).

2. 2
   adjective

   Very bright and the color of flame, such as vivid red, orange, or yellow.

   He wore a flaming scarlet jacket that no one could miss.

   Maples lined the road in flaming fall colors.

   Similarfiery, vivid, blazing, brilliant, bright

   Oppositedull, pale, muted, drab

   Note

   Color borrowed from fire, used for reds, oranges and golds that seem to glow. Sunsets and hair are its natural territory. J.A. Jance writes of flaming sunsets in Death of a Snowbird (1994), and M. A. Meadowcroft's The Windsurf Girl (2014) describes a painter longing for the flaming hair of Titian's women. Before another color word, as in flaming scarlet, it intensifies the hue rather than naming one.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Bitter, hostile criticism directed at a person.

   His post attracted a wave of flaming from angry readers.

   The forum's culture of flaming discouraged newcomers from posting.

   Similarabuse, vitriol, invective, trolling

   Oppositepraise

   Note

   Internet slang from newsgroups and forums, where a hostile reply is a flaming. It can count a single episode, as in you can expect a flaming if you post spam. It can also work as a mass noun for a general climate of abuse. The act itself belongs to the verb flame, seen in the participle, as when users are flaming each other.

4. 4
   adjective

   Very enthusiastic or passionate about something.

   The candidate gave a flaming speech that roused the whole crowd.

   He's a flaming enthusiast for vintage motorcycles.

   Similarpassionate, fervent, ardent, impassioned, fiery

   Oppositelukewarm, halfhearted, apathetic

   Note

   Fire as feeling: enthusiasm or zeal running hot. A familiar home for it is the set phrase hate something with a flaming passion, where it intensifies a noun that already means strong feeling. Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1847–48) shows a wider reach. There, a flaming account of society festivities is writing so fervent and glowing that it gushes.

5. 5
   adjectivecolloquial

   Conspicuously and unmistakably gay; flamboyantly so.

   The character is written as flaming, all flourish and theatrical gesture.

   He's flaming in a way that fills a room the moment he walks in.

   Similarflamboyant, camp

   Note

   A colloquial label that typically attaches to gay men, as in a flaming homosexual. Its force depends on who is speaking. Within LGBTQ communities it can be affectionate or even self-applied, but from a hostile speaker it lands as a slur. Learners do best to recognize it rather than use it about other people.

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquialAustraliaBritish

   Used before a noun as a mild curse to express irritation or anger at the thing named.

   I've been waiting an hour for the flaming bus.

   I've looked under every cushion and I still can't find the flaming remote.

   Similarbloody, damn, blasted, blooming, darned

   Note

   An intensifier of everyday British and Australian speech, aimed at whatever is getting on your nerves: the flaming traffic, the flaming bus. It goes before the noun and has nothing to do with fire. The jam is not burning, as it would be under the "on fire" meaning. It belongs with damned and bloody as a mild curse, so it suits a grumble among friends better than writing or formal speech.

7. 7
   verb

   Present participle of flame.

   Sparks rose as the dry brush went up, flaming against the dark.

   Users were flaming each other across the comment threads.

   Note

   One spelling does several jobs. As a participle it covers every verb sense of flame, from burning to bursting out in passion to the online insult. In that last meaning it can take an object, so people are flaming each other or flaming a newcomer. The same form also works as an adjective and as nouns, including the word for online abuse, so check whether a verb or a noun is doing the work.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An emission or application of fire; the act of burning something with flames.

   The flaming of the brush helped prevent larger wildfires later.

   Chefs finish the dessert with a brief flaming to caramelize the sugar on top.

   Similarburning, torching, searing

   Note

   Growers use it for fire put to work, such as burning off weeds before a crop comes up. The Market Growers Journal of 1950 reports that two flamings are usually needed. That shows the noun can count separate treatments as well as name the process: one flaming, several flamings. In the kitchen, the same word covers briefly setting a dessert alight.

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The killing of germs on an object by holding it in a hot flame.

   Proper flaming of the inoculation loop prevents contamination of the culture.

   Between samples, flaming of the forceps keeps the work area sterile.

   Similarsterilization

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