inflammableadj.n.

1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xiii. 54 The sulphurous substance and inflamable matter.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. v. 87 Brimstone is a Minerall body of fat and inflamable parts. View more context for this quotation

1673–4 N. Grew Vegetation Trunks iv. §4 A volatile and inflammable Spirit.

1674 W. Petty Disc. before Royal Soc. 93 In what proportions several Liquors contein more or less of inflameable or ardent parts.

1766 in Philos. Trans. Abridged 1763–9 (Royal Soc.) (1809) 12 77 (heading) Experiments on Inflammable Air.

1779 Ingenhousz in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 69 376 Account of a new kind of inflammable Air or Gass, which can be made in a Moment without Apparatus, and is as fit for Explosion as other inflammable Gasses in use for that Purpose.

1789 Austin in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 80 54 I therefore attempted to decompose the heavy inflammable air by means of sulphur, which readily unites with the light inflammable air in a condensed state, and with it forms hepatic air.

1791 E. Darwin Bot. Garden: Pt. I i. 133 (note) Mr. Lavoisier and others of the French School have most ingeniously endeavoured to shew that water consists of pure air, called by them oxygene, and of inflammable air, called hydrogene.

1866 H. E. Roscoe Lessons Elem. Chem. xxx. 266 Alcohol is very inflammable, burning with a slightly luminous blue flame.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 103 This is the gas which was formerly known as inflammable air, and is now called hydrogen.

1962 I. F. K. Muir & T. L. Barclay Burns & their Treatm. Foreword It is unfortunate that children and the elderly should bear the brunt of our apparent unwillingness to..elaborate methods of rendering clothing less inflammable.

1968 Which? Mar. 92 Recently..the Toilet Preparations Federation recommended to their members that inflammable hair preparations should carry a warning.

1968 E. Gale From Fibres to Fabrics xiv. 151 To render fabrics non-inflammable, they may be treated with mineral salts.

1972 Sci. Amer. Mar. 54/3 If a resulting spark has enough energy inflammables are ignited and explosions are set off.

1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Family II. 222 Henry..was, moreover, of so violent and inflammable a temper, that half a word was sufficient..to set his blood boiling.

1836 E. Bulwer-Lytton Athens (1837) I. 442 That lively, high-souled, sensitive, and inflammable people.

1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 65 Their disposition is very sanguine and inflammable.

a1862 H. T. Buckle Misc. Wks. (1872) I. 405 The inhabitants are little liable to inflammable disease.

1770 Cronstedt in Monthly Rev. 312 Inflammables, which can be dissolved in oils but not in waters.

1794 R. Kirwan Elements Mineral. (ed. 2) I. 1 The Mineral Kingdom is usually divided into four parts; 1. Earths and Stones. 2. Salts. 3. Inflammables. 4. Metallic Substances.

1807 E. S. Barrett Rising Sun I. 141 There may be some inflammables [women] here, for all that.

1894 Daily News 7 Apr. 5/8 An alarming fire broke out amongst some cargo, consisting of hay, timber, and other inflammables.

1680 R. Boyle Sceptical Chymist (new ed.) v. 318 They ascribe..to sulphur, as well Odours as inflamableness.

1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Inflameableness [1731 inflammableness], capableness of being inflamed or set on Fire.

1830 W. Godwin Cloudesley II. ii. 29 Partly by the inflammableness of his disposition in that respect.

1816 J. Scott Paris Revisited xi. 393 A light, ill-informed, inflammably-constituted public mind.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvii. [Ithaca] 684 The same concupiscence, inflammably transmitted first with alarm, then with understanding.