aflare

A1F4L1A1R1E1
UK/əˈflɛə/US/əˈflɛɹ/Australia/əˈfleː/New Zealand/əˈfleə/

adjective

Flaring (blazing or shining brightly or suddenly; also figuratively, of a strong emotion).

Scrabble 9

Meanings

adjectiveaflare (not comparable)
  1. not comparableFlaring (blazing or shining brightly or suddenly; also figuratively, of a strong emotion).

    1886, Mary Noailles Murfree (as Charles Egbert Craddock), In the Clouds, Chapter 17, p. 248, the flaming base of the opposite mountain, all luridly aflare in the windy dusk

    3 more examples

    Ho! Get to lair! The sun’s aflare / Behind the breathing grass:

    1895, Rudyard Kipling, “Letting in the Jungle”, in The Second Jungle Book, London: Macmillan, page 59

    [The dragon] kindly breathed out a little flame, which set the packet aflare for a moment.

    1919, Stella Benson, chapter 7, in Living Alone, London: Macmillan, published 2020, page 184

    […] he had not wanted to see the man when perhaps his blood was running hot and his temper aflare.

    1988, Jory Sherman, chapter 4, in Horne’s Law, New York: Walker and Company, page 30

    Synonyms: ablaze, afire, aflame, alight

  2. not comparableIlluminated (with something blazing or shining).

    […] at last they reached a corridor which was aflare with dancing torchlight.

    1968, Michael Moorcock, “The Dreaming City”, in The Stealer of Souls and Other Stories, London: Mayflower Books, page 19
    2 more examples

    […] Old Pye Street, Peter’s Street, and Duck Lane were aflare with the coarse lights of open naphtha lamps,

    1897, Hall Caine, The Christian, London: Heinemann, Book 3, Chapter 15, p. 331

    He used to tell me how you two used to go down to the harbor and watch the big liners come in at night, all aflare with lights through the Golden Gate.

    1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: George H. Doran, Part 6, p. 402
  3. not comparableFlaring (opening outward).

    ballet skirts aflare

    1921, Edna Ferber, chapter 7, in The Girls, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, page 129
    2 more examples

    To balance like a bird with wings aflare,

    1960, Vassar Miller, “Return”, in Wage War on Silence, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, page 58

    The black horse paced slowly out into the open, neck arched, nostrils aflare, eyes rolling.

    1983, Ahdaf Soueif, Aisha, London: Black Swan, published 1985, page 163

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveFlaring (blazing or shining brightly or suddenly; also figuratively, of a strong emotion).

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivestreaming or flapping or spreading wide as if in a current of air

adjectivelighted up by or as by fire or flame

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with aflare

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Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

aflare. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aflare

MLA

“aflare.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aflare. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “aflare,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aflare.

Source: aflare on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.