Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an argument, a fight.

1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 130: Some of our young citizens [...] got into a flare-up with a party of boatmen that lives on the Mississippi.
1840		Comic Almanack Aug. 234: ‘I say, Tug,’ said Mac Turk, one day, soon after our flare-up at Beulah.
1841		Flash (NY) 5 Feb. n.p.: [headline] A Regular Flare Up at 48 Crosby St.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 June 3/2: She got plentifully primed, and afterwards expending her spare vigour upon her face, and making a general flare-up, which ended in the chimney taking fire, by way of joining in the spree.
1849		Sam Sly 20 Jan. 3/1: Sam understands you are going to get married to Harry B—ey, the toll-boy at the gate. Sam intends being present on that occasion. We will have a regular flare-up, and no mistake.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 26 Feb. n.p.: ‘Full particulars of the great flare-up in Wall Street’.
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Mar. 3/3: So you went to see a flare up? I suppose you like to see such sights?
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 15: Flare up. A riot or disturbance.
1887		H. Frederic Seth’s Brother’s Wife 1: Ef ther’ ain’t a flare-up in this haouse ’fore long, I miss my guess.
1901		T.B. Reed Master of Shell 17: Such a flare up ! [...] Moss has got kicked out!
1903		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:v 297: flare-up, n. A sudden quarrel.
1908		N.Z. Truth 22 Feb. 6/1: The other night there was a regular flare-up in their house.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1923		M. Garahan Stiffs 146: It was my first flare-up.
1932		J. O’Hara ‘Ella and the Chinee’ in New Yorker 23 Jan. 59/3: The tong flare-up died down and Lee became completely a yellow-skinned old bore.
1973		J. Wambaugh Onion Field 39: They would remain silent during the flare-ups, not certain whose side to take.
2002		(con. 1932-3) D. Frith Bodyline Autopsy 175: [I]t was a similar manoeuvre that sparked the ugly Mike Gatting/Shakoor Rana flare-up at Faisalabad in 1987.

2. a jovial social gathering.

1834		Satirist (London) 12 Feb. 15: ‘Cheer up, Charley,’ cried Stevens to Pearson, whom he had invited to his Christmas ‘flare up’.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Feb. 4/2: Buckley’s wines are devilish good, and his table well kept — we propose giving the flare-ups on board in our next.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 111: Did you ever go to a ball at Tammany Hall? [...] The season is now fast coming on for these grand flare-ups, and we shall have one at least every night.
1852		‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 147: Oh, what a spicy flare-up, tear-up, / Festival Terpsichory.
1858		Westmorland Gaz. 11 Sept. 8/5: [from Punch] Nor was the flare-up limited to merely gas and fireworks [...] the big fountains played champagne and ginger-beer alternately.
1861		A. Smith Medical Student 80: He has passed the Hall! won’t he have a flare-up to-night!
1878		G. Leybourne ‘I Should Like To’ in Comic Songs 20: We’re going to have a genuine flare up, and no mistake.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 7/1: You’ll miss me, that, of course, I know; / Or why this gastronomic flare up? / Six months, or so, will see me back, / So try (tis hard, I know) to bear up.
1894		G.A. Sala in Daily Tel. 28 July in Ware (1909) 133/1: ‘Flare-up’ at the present time is a purely jocular interjection. A noisy revel is very often spoken of by bacchanalians as ‘a jolly flare-up’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 29: Flare Up, a party of friends met for a spree.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Love Began’ Sporting Times 8 Feb. 1/3: With a flare-up on Bank Holidays, with mirth, and dance and song.
1910		H. Boden et al. [perf. ] ‘Harry Ford’ 🎵 You’ve had a fine old flare up, I will lay / You careless, reckless, double-dyed old spendthrift.

3. one who seeks a good time; also attrib.

1835		Watford Chron. 12 Dec. 5/3: A party of flare-up chaps, and no mistake.
1846		New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus 33: All flare-ups, in seeking the pursuit of merriment, will there be instructed in the art, by association with these happy mortals.

4. one who is socially adept.

1888

‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: He may be jest as nice as Jemimer, all flare-up and everything fly.

5. an orgy.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.