Conflagrating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of starting a fire ; the process of causing a large-scale destructive fire
2. Igniting or setting something ablaze ; bringing about an extensive and damaging blaze
3. Causing something to catch fire and burn ; initiating or spreading a widespread and intense fire

Etymology: "Conflagrating" is the present participle of "conflagrate," a verb that English borrowed in the 1650s from Latin "conflagrare," meaning "to be consumed by fire." The Latin verb is built from "com-," an intensifying prefix, and "flagrare," "to burn or blaze," the same root that gives English "flagrant," originally a word for something so glaringly visible it seems on fire. Latin "flagrare" itself was a verb of burning, and its sense of a conspicuous, blazing offense only came to English much later through "flagrant." The English "conflagrate" therefore carried a fire-centred meaning from the start, and "conflagration," the noun for a large, destructive blaze, followed the same pattern. The verb form is the rarer of the two in modern use. Its ending "-ate" is the common English verb suffix, which is why the word sounds more like a chemical or technical term than an everyday one.

Synonyms: burning, blazing, flaming, igniting, scorching

Antonyms: extinguishing, quenching, dousing, suppressing, cooling