Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. venereal disease; thus flaming adj., diseased.

1707		N. Ward London Terraefilius I 6: [She] Quenches one Flame by being kind, But often leaves a worse behind.
c.1720		‘Venus Unmasked’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 182: Since that all trading Sparks and Dames, / Are subject to Venereal Flames, / As Doctors do agree.
c.1720		‘The Original black Joke. Sent from Dublin’ 🎵 He fancy’d himself very fit fr the game / She sent him to Holland all in a flame.
1749		Hist. of the Human Heart 293: Camillo, in some of his Rambles, had taken in a foreign Fire, which he communicated to the Countess, [...] when the Peer her Husband found he had catched the Flame.

2. a (female) lover; the (male) object of much romantic adoration.

1743		Fielding Life of Jonathan Wild (1784) II 185: When first Wild conducted his flame (or rather his dish, to continue our metaphor) [...] he had projected a design of conveying her to one of those eating-houses in Covent-Garden.
1753		Richardson Sir Charles Grandison (1812) I 12: Am I, or am I not right, Mr. Reeves, as to my nephew’s flame, as they call it. ‘The lady you describe, Sir Rowland, is Miss Byron.’.
1764		Foote Lyar in Works (1799) I 295: I must scribble a billet to my new flame.
1777		Sheridan Trip to Scarborough I i: Has he been addressing your old flame, the sprightly Widow Berinthia?
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 117: All in the sheriff’s picture frame the call / Exalted high, Dick parted with his flame, / And all his comrades swore that he dy’d game.
1824		‘Sonnets for the Fancy’ in Egan Boxiana III 622: [as 1791].
1835		D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 6: My next flame was a pretty little girl that I had known when quite young.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London II ii: Louisa! and who is she? Some old flame, I suppose.
1855		Thackeray Newcomes II 107: Clive’s flame, poor Miss Newcome.
1863		(con. mid-18C) G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 94: Mistress Slyboots, his Flame, kept him company.
1879		London Life 7 June 6/2: So while their peers are fondling with their ‘fancies,’ they are flirting with their ‘flames’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Apr. 4/4: Willy Dawes has a new ‘flame’ she says she’s bound to him like Willy Nilly.
1887		J. Payn Glow-Worm Tales II 42: He’s always a-talking about ma’s old flames.
1891		Punch CL 31 Oct. 210: She will make a third with Me and my latest Gallic ‘flame.’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 29: Flame, a sweetheart.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Money and Matrimony’ Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/3: He broke off the contract with his thriftless flame, / And he prudently spliced her dressmaker.
1920		R.J. Fry Salvation of Jemmy Sl. II i: Who is this new flame, Jemmy?
1932		George Olsen & His Orchestra ‘All American Girl’ 🎵 She threw a tackle at Alabama, / And a Dartmouth guard’s her flame.
1935		R.L. Bellem ‘Beyond Justice’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 This blonde Wanda Wynne wench was rumored to be Ben Berkin’s flame.
1943		W. Winchell On Broadway 4 June [synd. col.] Elinor Troy, once a [Tommy] Manville flame.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 118: The other happened to be a pet flame of Eddie Packman’s.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 89: Conchita, presumably with the aid of a new flame, had acquired a second wooden leg and run off.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 32: The old flame closed the window and dashed into the kitchen.
2000		Guardian Guide 29 July–4 Aug. 11: Cage hooks up with his old flame.
2010		Sun. Times Sport 19 Dec. 25/1: He had been spotted snogging [...] Hugh Grant’s old flame.
2016		Guardian G2 10 Feb. 6/3: A marriage-ruining afair with an old flame.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 74: ‘Didn’t know you had a new flame?’ [...] ‘I only met her last night’.

3. a redhead; thus Flames, a nickname.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. Flames red-haired people receive this appellation; but ’tis mostly confined to females, e.g. ‘Looking up to the vomen’s vard von day, vho should I fling my precious ogles upon but Flames ? she as lived at the Blue Posts, ye know, vhen Jemmy soft vas tied up.’.

4. (US, also flame number) an infatuation.

1932		P.G. Cressey Taxi-Dance Hall 97: I was always getting a flame over this fellow or that one.
1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 16 Mar. 12/5: Arline Barker, who used to do a ‘flame number’ with Skeeter Hollings, has changed to Earl Hunter.

5. see flamer n.¹ (6)