old flame
14
4.2
- noun
:
antiguo amor
- I was surprised to see my old flame at the party after all these years.
- rekindle an old flame
- meet an old flame
- see your old flame
OK, so the name derived from a old flame that used to call me up and be like, hey, you want me to tip a hug?
- OK, so the name derived from a old flame that used to call me up and be like, hey, you want me to tip a hug?
Examples
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Then there are those songs that remind you of an old flame that burned you badly.
Blog text (16) -
You remember Renata, Gusteau's old flame?
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Maybe he ran into an old friend or an old flame.
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Now that she'd lost Max, had some of Rose's feelings for her old flame returned?
Fiction book (1998) -
She's quite an old flame of his.
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I'm going to a rock concert with an old flame, and I think there is a chance we may reconnect.
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No ex-boyfriends, old flames or shadowy figures from the past.
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Zeke had to call a time-out after running into yet another old flame, who made it clear her life was much better without him.
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On receiving news of his death, a journalist seeks out his old flame, Guiomar, now living a respectable married life.
Academic text (2000) -
Now she understood what he hadn't been able to tell her, that he had met his old flame again, and it was a fire that was consuming his vacant moments and the empty pockets in his life as it had before.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
351
4.1
A person who used to be your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife
15
2.2
A man who used to be someone's boyfriend
Surface Forms
Morphology
The word 'old' clearly signals a former relationship, but 'flame' only indirectly evokes romantic passion via a metaphor (fire = passion) rather than the literal meaning of a burning flame. Because understanding the phrase depends on recognizing this metaphorical use of 'flame'—which is not guaranteed for a B1 learner who only knows the literal words—the expression is partially but not fully predictable.
Etymology
The phrase old flame may come from the simple image of love as a fire: a flame shows strong feeling, and when that fire goes out it becomes 'old'. So an old flame is someone you loved before, which is why it means 'a person you loved in the past'.