flares

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of flare.

   The fighter jet released flares to draw the missile away.

   Patients with arthritis often learn which foods seem to trigger their flares.

   Note

   A regular plural, made with -s, that follows the noun across its whole range: signal flares fired at sea, decoy flares dropped by a jet, sudden flares of light, and in medicine the flares of an inflamed joint or tendon. Context nearly always settles which is meant, since a pilot and a patient rarely share a sentence.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of flare.

   Fighting in the region often flares again just as peace talks begin.

   The skirt is fitted at the waist and flares gently toward the hem.

   Note

   The verb with a singular present-tense subject: the fire flares, her temper flares. For the meanings of sudden intensity it often takes up (the pain flares up at night), while the shape meaning takes out or a phrase of direction: the skirt flares out toward the hem.

3. 3
   nounplural

   Pants whose legs widen toward the bottom into a bell-like shape.

   He wore purple flares and platform shoes to the disco party.

   The store's denim flares sold out within a week of the ad campaign.

   Similarbell-bottoms

   Note

   A plural-only noun for clothing, like trousers or jeans: it takes a plural verb (these flares are too long), and a single garment is a pair of flares. That is the quickest way to tell it from the ordinary plural, where two flares means two separate bursts or devices. Bell-bottoms is the close equivalent.

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