flare up

Verb

flare up (third-person singular simple present flares up, present participle flaring up, simple past and past participle flared up)

1. (intransitive) To burn brightly again.
   • The fire flared up after we added more wood to it.
2. (intransitive) To become more intense suddenly.
   • Reports indicate that tensions have flared up in the Middle East again.
   • The pain in my shoulder flares up when I turn my head.
3. (intransitive, sometimes) To burst out suddenly, as in anger.
   • The insult made him flare up.
   • “Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC