inflame

verb11

1. •
   To set (someone or something) on fire; to cause (someone or something) to burn, flame, or glow; to kindle.

   • [W]e should haue made retreate, / By light of the inflamed fleet, vvith all the Greeks escheate; […] — 1611
2. •
   (figurative) To cause (someone, or their heart, mind, etc.) to feel strong desire or other feelings; to excite (someone) to great passion; specifically, to cause (someone) to feel anger or rage; to anger, to enrage, to incense.

   • You are not VVood, you are not Stones, but men: / And being men, hearing the VVill of Caesar, / It vvill inflame you, it vvill make you mad; […] — 1599
3. •
   (figurative) To excite or intensify (a feeling, such as an appetite or passion), especially to an excessive or unnatural level.

   • The reports and sanguine speculations of the first adventures had inflamed the cupidity of many, […] — 1838
4. •
   (figurative) To feel strong desire or other feelings; to be passionate; specifically, to feel anger or rage.

   • I fled, but he [Death] pursu'd (though more, it seems, / Inflam'd vvith lust then rage) and svvifter far, […] — 1667
5. •
   (figurative) To cause (something intangible, such as a dispute or violence, or hunger or thirst) to become more serious or worse; to aggravate, to exacerbate.

   • They often drank of this stream, which had such a particular quality in it, that though it refreshed them for a time, it rather inflamed than quenched their thirst. — 1709
6. •
   To cause (the body or a body part) to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to cause inflammation, including abnormal heat, pain, redness, swelling, etc., in (the body or a body part).

   • His lyver is al enflamed with drinkyng of hote wynes: […] — 1530
7. •
   Of a person's body or body part: to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to be affected by inflammation.
8. •
   To burst into flames, to catch fire.
9. •
   To cause (something) to appear bright or red, as if on fire; to brighten, to redden.

   • I vvill my self conduct thee on thy VVay, / VVhen next the Southing Sun inflames the Day; / VVhen the dry Herbage thirsts for Devvs in vain, / And Sheep, in Shades, avoid the parching Plain. — 1697
10. •
    (figurative, no longer used) To increase (the price or quantity of something).

    • [T]his new corporation of druggists had inflamed the bills of mortality, and puzzled the college of physicians with diseases, for which they neither knew a name or cure. — 1710
11. •
    (no longer used) To become very hot.

    • The vvind vvas favourable a vvhile; but ere long becalmed, vvhereby the ayre inflam'd, and Sea gave a fierie reflection; […] — 1634