subs. (colloquial).—1.  A sweetheart; a mistress in keeping. OLD FLAME = an old lover; a cast-off mistress. Also (2) a venereal disease.

1

  b. 1664, d. 1721.  MATHEW PRIOR, Chloe and Euphelia [in Palgrave’s “Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” ed. 1885].

        Euphelia serves to grace my measure;
  But Chloe is my real flame!

2

  1757.  FOOTE, The Author, Act I. Let’s see, Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader, and your FLAME, the sister, as I live.

3

  1846–8.  THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. On this Rebecca instantly stated that Amelia was engaged to be married to a Lieutenant Osborne, a very old FLAME.

4

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

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