burn
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bûn
ipa: /bɜːn/
ipa: /bɔːn/
enpr: bûrn
ipa: /bɝn/
homophone: Bern
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
Forms: form: burns
form: burning
form: burned
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burnt
form: brent
form: brent
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: burn
form: burn
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burn
form: burnest
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burnedst
form: burntest
form: burns
form: burneth
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burn
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burn
form: burned
form: burnt
form: burn
form: -
form: burning
form: burned
form: burnt
form: born
Etymology: From Middle English bernen (collateral form of brennen), from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew.
Cognate with Cimbrian prönnan (“to burn”), Dutch barnen, branden (“to burn”), German brinnen (“to burn”), Luxembourgish brennen (“to burn”), Vilamovian brīn (“to burn”), Yiddish ברענען (brenen, “to burn”), Danish brænde (“to burn”), Faroese, Icelandic brenna (“to burn”), Norwegian Bokmål brenne (“to burn”), Norwegian Nynorsk brenna, brenne (“to burn”), Swedish brinna (“to burn”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (brinnan, “to burn”). See also Middle Irish brennim (“drink up”), bruinnim (“bubble up”); also Middle Irish bréo (“flame”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium, mouth burning”), Sanskrit भुरति (bhurati, “moves quickly, twitches, fidgets”). More at brew.
Senses: examples: text: He burned his manuscript in the fireplace.
text: On July 1, 1402,⁹⁵ when the Prince of Yen reached P’u-k’ou (in Kiangsu), Sheng Yung and his imperial troops attacked him and attempted to burn his boats.⁹⁶
ref: 1976, David B. Chan, “The Fall of Nanking”, in The Usurpation of the Prince of Yen, 1398-1402 (Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service Center, Inc. Occasional Series), number 7, San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, Inc., →OCLC, page 83:
text: Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.
ref: 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
text: I've never been on top of the latest trends. When everyone was burning CDs I was still burning books.
ref: 2017 April 30, Norm Macdonald Live, season 3, episode 12, spoken by Norm Macdonald:
synonyms: burn
cinder
forsweal
incinerate
singe
torch
glosses: To cause to be consumed by fire.
examples: text: He watched the house burn.
text: Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
synonyms: combust
go up
glosses: To be consumed by fire, or in flames.
examples: text: He burned the toast. The blacksmith burned the steel.
glosses: To overheat so as to make unusable.
examples: text: The grill was too hot and the steak burned.
glosses: To become overheated to the point of being unusable.
examples: text: to burn a hole;  to burn letters into a block
text: I posted myself near a place where they had been burning charcoal, and very soon the hare came running past, close to where I was standing.
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 78:
glosses: To make or produce by the application of fire or burning heat.
examples: text: She burned the child with an iron, and was jailed for ten years.
synonyms: scathe
vitriolize
glosses: To injure (a person or animal) with heat or chemicals that produce similar damage.
topics: medicine
sciences
surgery
glosses: To cauterize.
examples: text: She forgot to put on sunscreen and burned.
glosses: To sunburn.
examples: text: to burn the mouth with pepper
text: This tyrant fever burns me up.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
text: This dry sorrow burns up all my tears.
ref: 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
text: You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask.
ref: 1965, Amplified Bible, James 4:2:
glosses: To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does.
examples: text: The child’s forehead was burning with fever.  Her cheeks burned with shame.
text: In ſlumbers oft for fere I quake
For hete & cold I burne & ſhake
For lake of ſlepe my hede dothe ake
What menys thys
ref: a. 1542, Thomas Wyatt, “What menythe thys” in the Devonshire Manuscript, folio 12 verso
glosses: To be hot, e.g. due to embarrassment.
examples: text: to burn iron in oxygen
text: A human being burns a certain amount of carbon at each respiration.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize.
examples: text: Copper burns in chlorine.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To combine energetically, with evolution of heat.
examples: text: We’ll burn this program onto an EEPROM one hour before the demo begins.
text: At first they didn’t do anything by design, beyond writing songs and gigging around Sheffield, distributing homemade demo CDs at shows. Their canny friends burned copies to leave on buses, but more importantly, uploaded them to filesharing sites and set up a MySpace page.
ref: 2015 October 22, Laura Snapes, “How Arctic Monkeys’ debut single changed the music industry and ‘killed the NME’”, in The Guardian:
text: I've never been on top of the latest trends. When everyone was burning CDs I was still burning books.
ref: 2017 April 30, Norm Macdonald Live, season 3, episode 12, spoken by Norm Macdonald:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To write data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip.
examples: text: My old DVD player could play DivX files but didn't recognize the subtitle file, so I had to burn them in.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To render subtitles into a video's content while transcoding it, making the subtitles part of the image (hardsubs).
examples: text: The informant burned him.
glosses: To betray.
examples: text: I just burned you again.
glosses: To insult or defeat.
examples: text: We have an hour to burn.
text: The company has burned more than a million dollars a month this year.
text: Oh, why don’t you save all the money you earn? / If I didn’t eat, I’d have money to burn.
ref: c. 1897, anonymous (lyrics and music), “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum”
synonyms: fritter
squander
glosses: To waste (time); to waste money or other resources.
examples: text: You’re cold… warm… hot… you’re burning!
text: Not being accustomed to make fine distinctions, or to appreciate magnanimity, they read his letters and speeches as if they read them not. They were not aware when they approached a heroic statement,—they did not know when they burned.
ref: 1860, Henry David Thoreau, The Last Days of John Brown:
glosses: In certain games, to approach near to a concealed object which is sought.
topics: ball-games
curling
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To accidentally touch a moving stone.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In pontoon, to swap a pair of cards for another pair, or to deal a dead card.
topics: arts
broadcasting
film
hobbies
lifestyle
media
photography
television
videography
coordinate_terms: dodge
glosses: To make an area of an image darker (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is accomplished by increasing the exposure of that area to light).
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: To be converted to another element in a nuclear fusion reaction, especially in a star.
raw_tags: of an element
topics: card-games
gambling
games
glosses: To discard.
glosses: To shoot someone with a firearm.
examples: text: He had already burned his cover with Mrs. Phillips, and it was not a mistake he intended to make again.
ref: 2011, Thomas H. Cook, Night Secrets:
text: Eventually they'd report back to Ryker, and he still didn't know if Ryker had personally burned his cover and sent assassins after him, or if the SSU had a mole. Until he knew for certain, he had to play this safe.
ref: 2013, Vanessa Kier, Vengeance: The SSU Book 1:
topics: espionage
government
military
politics
war
glosses: To compromise (an agent's cover story).
examples: text: "How does Leipzig burn him precisely?" Enderby insisted. "What's the pressure? Dirty pix—well, okay. Karla's a puritan, so's Kirov. But I mean, Christ, this isn't the fifties, is it? […]
ref: 1979, John le Carré, Smiley's People:
topics: espionage
government
military
politics
war
glosses: To blackmail.
glosses: To desire or ache for (something); to focus on attaining (something).
Synonyms: word: burn
word: combust
word: forburn
word: go up
word: outburn
word: torch
Hypernyms: word: happen
word: worsen
Hyponyms: word: blaze up
word: burn to a crisp
word: burn away
word: burn down
word: burn off
word: burn up
word: cinder
word: deflagrate
word: flare up
word: flicker
word: smolder
word: smother
word: sweal
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: aburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: are your ears burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burnability
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burnable
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn a hole in someone's pocket
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn away
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn, baby, burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn book
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn bread
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: Burn Bridge
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn coal
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn daylight
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn down
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burner
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn in
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn in hell
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn off
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one down
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one's boats
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one's bridges
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one's candle at both ends
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one's fingers
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn one's toast
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn out
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burnout
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn rubber
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn someone at the stake
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn someone's ass
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn someone's ears
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn that bridge when one comes to it
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the candle at both ends
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the coal
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the coal, pay the toll
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the midnight oil
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the roof
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn the water
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn-the-wind
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn through
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn time
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn to a crisp
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burnt toast theory
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: burn up
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: crash and burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: dump and burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: ears are burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: ever-burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: forburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: get one's fingers burnt
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: inburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: I've burned myself
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: I've burnt myself
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: keep the home fires burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: long-burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: money to burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: overburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: preburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: reburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: Rome wasn't burned in a day
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: slash-and-burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: slash and burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: slow-burning
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: to burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: turn or burn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: two lamps burning and no ship at sea
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: unburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: underburn
sense: Terms derived from the verb “burn”
word: watch the world burn
Related terms: word: brimstone
word: combust
word: kindle