A sudden outbreak, outburst or eruption (originally of flame, but now used more generally of any violent activity or emotion).
Used in a Sentence
flare-ups
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for flare-ups.
Editorial note
The illness is only a weakness during (very rare, less than once per year) flare-ups.
Examples13
Definitions3
Parts of speech1
Quick take
A sudden outbreak, outburst or eruption (originally of flame, but now used more generally of any violent activity or emotion).
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of flare-ups gathered in one view.
A sudden intensification in activity.
An inflammation such as of tendons (tendonitis) or joints (osteoarthritis).
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for flare-ups.
noun
A sudden outbreak, outburst or eruption (originally of flame, but now used more generally of any violent activity or emotion).
noun
A sudden intensification in activity.
noun
An inflammation such as of tendons (tendonitis) or joints (osteoarthritis).
Example sentences
The illness is only a weakness during (very rare, less than once per year) flare-ups.
My dad got Lyme on the Appalachian Trail five years ago, and still has symptom flare-ups regularly.
It might be provoked indirectly by things like stress, but coffee or other food are not thought to trigger flare-ups.
But have we historically really done much better in this regard (other than some 'flare-ups' like the sixties)?
Normally I'm able to ignore these flare-ups, but this one really is getting old.
I do see flare-ups of partisan hackery from time to time, but I think batting it back down with comment voting and the occasional polite reminder works well.
There's certain times when there's big flare-ups of infections such as flu, so maybe giving everyone an annoying vaccine during that time which gives them the sniffles would actually improve things overall.
At least the exhaustion that comes from solving hard problems is a good thing; the kind that comes from political flare-ups and open-plan offices is pretty useless as far as I can tell.
I still drink 1-3 cups of coffee a day (every few months I go for a week without coffee, just to make sure I can still function without it), and have had no flare-ups or problems since I changed the rest of my lifestyle habits.
Quote examples
A morally decent person would recognize that as wrong (it's health discrimination, and counterproductive, to punish people with "creative flare-ups")...
Israel's nukes are troubling, but the weird "nuclear ambiguity" doctrine has already stood for so long and managed to avoid nuclear flare-ups so far.
A morally decent person would recognize that as wrong (it's health discrimination, and counterproductive, to punish people with "creative flare-ups") but, even still, stories like that are so common in Silicon Valley as to be unremarkable.
“So even if you get the fire out, it will rekindle if you don’t either take away the fuel or cool it.” Not to dumb it down, but I can see this being an effective tool for preventing grease flare-ups in my grill.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use flare-ups in a sentence?
The illness is only a weakness during (very rare, less than once per year) flare-ups.
What does flare-ups mean?
A sudden outbreak, outburst or eruption (originally of flame, but now used more generally of any violent activity or emotion).
What part of speech is flare-ups?
flare-ups is commonly used as noun.