smolder

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to burn slowly with heat and smoke but little or no flame

   Wet logs continued to smolder long after the flames had died.

2. 2
   verb

   to remain suppressed but active, especially as anger, passion, or conflict

   Resentment continued to smolder beneath their polite conversation.

3. 3
   noun

   a slow, flameless burning or a subdued, intense emotional expression

   The actor replaced open anger with a quiet smolder.

From Middle English smolderen ("to suffocate or stifle") and smolder ("smoke, smoky vapor"), ultimately from a West Germanic verb meaning to burn, glow, or fume. The figurative emotional sense compares hidden feeling to a fire that remains hot without visible flame.

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