Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an admirer, a lover.

1675		Head Art of Wheedling 57: He carries perpetually about him a Catalogue of all the Whores [...] ranking them into three Columes apart; and thus distinguished: the Flamer, Frisker, and Wast-coateer.
c.1785		‘The Dog and Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black (1975) I 80: Your flamer will grow gallows haughty, / When she’s told of your scaly mistake.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 39/1: ’Twas only a few nights back that my flamer came near to making a ‘stiff ’un’ o’ me in the Artichoke at Brighton.

2. a conspicuous, ostentatious person who ‘burns brightly’.

1809		Spirit of Public Journals (1810) XIII 163: Harry Helter was resolved not to be outdone by Dick Daredevil, who sported a brace of flamers (wenches) on his coach-box at Brighton.
1840		H. Cockton Valentine Vox 5: Concocting a criticism on the evening’s performance which certainly was [...] ‘a regular flamer’ .
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 162: Pitch him the soft sawder, Jack, my flamer.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 26 Oct. n.p.: ‘What in h—l’s up with the fellows tonight?’ [...] cried one flamer over to the other.

3. an enthusiast; a success with the female sex, a ladies’ man.

1888		‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/2: Some chaps who’re fair flamers as lovers, are failures as ’usbands.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 118: Flamer A sexually expert male.
1973		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: flamer – fraternity-type guy who is a real ladies’ man.

4. Aus. euph. for bastard n. (1), bugger n.¹ (1), etc. [backform flaming adj.² (1)].

1906

Sun. Times (Perth) 20 May 4/7: Another blighter’ll come along ter inkquire if tincture er nux vomica is a nantidote for York-road poison. An’ a third flamer if a missus cat can be prosecuted under the provisions of the Dog Act.

5. (Aus.) a prostitute.

1910		Truth (Perth) 5 June 12/1: ‘Feemale rubbish!’ sez the other, / ‘What are that as you do say? / Why she are a perfect flamer, As escaped from Sydney way’.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 12 Jan. 11/4: I don’t know how much they gave her, / But she left the kiddie, there — / Who, in less than 2 months after / Were a Flamer, I declare.

6. (US, also flame, flame artist, flame thrower) a blatantly homosexual man; also attrib. [underpinned by abbr. of flaming faggot].

1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 254: The three young boys sitting together [...] were flamers, [...] their faces cast in that pretty, pointed, aesthetic mould that indulgent doting mothers are so Cellini-like at shaping.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 118: Flamer An effeminate male.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 73: stereotype effeminate homosexual [...] flame; flame artist [thrower]; flamer.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: flamer – overt homosexual.
1997		Mad mag. Oct. 48: Not only am I a screaming flamer but I’m going to spend the next half hour beating the crap out of Andy Rooney.
1997		Da Bomb Summer Supplement 6: Flamer (n.) {Offensive, derogatory} An effeminate male.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 flamer Definition: one with the homosexual qualities or preferring one of the same sex. Example: Dat dude there be down with the flamer queer.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 121: Lots of flamers, the occasional actor.
2013		NSFWCorp 5 June 🌐 Marcus tells me he doesn’t mind the company of gay men, especially the ‘flamers’.