flare up

1. 1.

   ignite quickly and suddenly, especially after having died down

   “the fire flared up and died down once again”

   Broaderignite

   Narrowerkindle
2. 2.

   erupt or intensify suddenly

   “Unrest erupted in the country”

   “Tempers flared at the meeting”

   “The crowd irrupted into a burst of patriotism”

   Synonymseruptirruptflarebreak openburst out

   Broaderintensify

Questions about flare up

What does flare up mean?

flare up means "ignite quickly and suddenly, especially after having died down". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for flare up?

Close synonyms include erupt, irrupt, flare, break open, burst out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is flare up a common word?

flare up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.