flame
part of speech
noun (a flame, flames); verb (flame, flames, flamed, flaming)
meaning for a pupil
1) A flame is the hot, bright, burning gas you see in a fire: the flame of a candle. tree →
2) «In flames» means burning. tree →
3) To flame is to burn brightly or turn bright red. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, a flame needs fuel, oxygen and heat (the fire triangle); the blue part of a gas flame is hottest. In safety, keep hair, sleeves and paper away from flames; never leave candles burning alone; if clothes catch fire, «stop, drop and roll». In stories, flames show danger or warmth. Phrases: «burst into flames», «go up in flames», «an old flame» (an old boyfriend or girlfriend).
examples
- Blow out the flame of the candle. tree →
- The house was in flames. tree →
- Keep your sleeves away from the flame. tree →
- The flame flickered in the wind. tree →
- The car burst into flames. tree →
- If your clothes catch fire, stop, drop and roll. tree →
- A blue flame is hotter than a yellow one. tree →
- Never play with flames. tree →
- The flames were breaking out from below. tree →
note
Countable. Adjective: «flammable» or «inflammable» — BOTH mean it burns easily (a famous trap); «non-flammable» means it does not. «Flaming» can also be a mild rude word in British speech.
In the corpora
- In Shrek, a dragon as big as a castle breathes great flames, flies and guards a castle full of treasure.
- A flame is glowing hot gas; its yellow light comes from tiny specks of hot soot.
- Put a jar over the candle and the flame soon dies, because it cannot get fresh oxygen.
- A grown-up can show the parts of a flame, but flames are never a toy.
- Wood gives off gases that burn with flames; charcoal has already had its gases driven off, so it glows instead.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «flame» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.