burn

A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.

Noun

  1. A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.
    • She had second-degree burns from falling in the bonfire.
    • He burnt his hand in the fire.
  2. A sensation resembling such an injury.
    • chili burn from eating hot peppers
  3. The act of burning something with fire.
    • They’re doing a controlled burn of the fields.
    • One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn. - 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
  4. An intense non-physical sting, as left by shame or an effective insult.
  5. An effective insult, often in the expression sick burn (excellent or badass insult).
  6. Physical sensation in the muscles following strenuous exercise, caused by build-up of lactic acid.
    • One and, two and, keep moving; feel the burn!
  7. Tobacco.
    • TOM: I’m serious bruv. Put my burn and lighter and all that in my jeans please and give them here, then press the cell bell. - 2002, Tom Wickham, “A Day In The Wrong Life”, in Julian Broadhead, Laura Kerr, editors,...
    • “Any of you want to borrow some burn,” asked a scarred inmate known as Bull. - 2006, S. Drake, A Cry for Help, Chipmunkapublishing ltd, →ISBN, Chapter 7, page 94:
    • It was like no one was looking out for me, and the older kids used to take the piss ...they were always threatening me and taking my burn [tobacco][…] - 2006, Peter Squires, editor, Community Safety: Critical...
  8. The writing of data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip.
    • Allow additional burns enables you to create a multisession CD, which can be used again to write more data. - 2003, Maria Langer, Mac OS X 10.2 Advanced, page 248:
  9. The operation or result of burning or baking, as in brickmaking.
    • They have a good burn.
  10. A disease in vegetables; brand.
  11. The firing of a spacecraft's rockets in order to change its course.
    • On 4 March 1999, the MCO performed its second course correction manoeuvre with a burn involving its four thrusters […] - 2004, David Baker, Jane's Space Directory, page 529:

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw- Proto-Indo-European *bʰrénuh₁e-? Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-West Germanic *brinnan Old English biernan ▲ Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *brannijaną Proto-West Germanic *brannijan Old English bærnan Old Norse brennabor. Middle English brennen English burn From Late Middle English burne, birne, which arose via the metathesis of brinne, brynne, a variant of brennen. The East Midland forms were heavily influenced by Old Norse brinna, brenna (“to burn”), from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew. The late metathesis of East Midland brin- to birn- (and subsequently burn-) parallels the phonological development of bird and dirt from brid and drit....

Forms

burns born

Derived

afterburn backburn back burn back-burn beard burn burger burn burn bag burn-baited burn barrel burn-beat burn building burn center burn-clearing burnie burn-in burnlike burn notice burn-out burnover burn pavement burn phone burn pit burnproof burn rate

Noun Northern England, Scotland

  1. A large stream.
    • This darksome burn, horseback brown, / His rollrock highroad roaring down, / In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam / Flutes and low to the lake falls home. - 1881, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Inversnaid”, in Robert...
    • He may pitch on some tuft of lilacs over a burn, and smoke innumerable pipes to the tune of the water on the stones. - 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:
    • At this place, the clay in the 52 ft. embankment had been under water pressure for some weeks before the water level could be lowered, and the burn diverted through a temporary culvert. - 1950 October, “Completion of...

Origin

From Northern Middle English burn, from Old English burne, burna (“spring, fountain”), Proto-West Germanic *brunnō, from Proto-Germanic *brunnô, *brunō. Cognate with Scots burn (“stream”), Cimbrian, Mòcheno prunn (“well, spring”), Dutch bron (“well”), German Bronnen, Brun, Brunnen (“well”), Luxembourgish Buer, Bur (“well”), Yiddish ברונעם (brunem, “well”), Danish brønd (“well”), Faroese brunnur, bruður (“well”), Icelandic brunnur (“well”), Norwegian Bokmål, Scanian brønn (“well”), Norwegian Nynorsk brunn, brønn (“well”), Swedish brunn (“well”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰 (brunna, “source, wellspring”), Crimean Gothic brunna (“spring, fountain, source”). Also Albanian burim (“spring, fountain”), Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well, reservoir”), Old Armenian աղբիւր (ałbiwr, “fount”). Doublet of bourn. More at brew.

Forms

burns born

Related

bourn

Derived

Burn Bridge Burnmouth Burnside

Verb

  1. To cause to be consumed by fire.
    • He burned his manuscript in the fireplace.
    • They haue ſlayne my baylye⸝ and diſtroyed the houſes of my men⸝ banyſſhed and chaſed away myne offycers, and brent yͤ houſe in the worlde that I loued beſt. - 1523 February 7 (Gregorian calendar), Johan Froyssart [i.e.,...
    • On July 1, 1402, 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 - 1976, David B. Chan, “The Fall of Nanking”, in The Usurpation...

    Synonyms: burn cinder forsweal incinerate singe torch burn away burn down burn up burn to a crisp char up cremate forburn scathe

  2. To be consumed by fire, or in flames.
    • He watched the house burn.
    • 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...

    Synonyms: combust go up

  3. To overheat so as to make unusable.
    • He burned the toast. The blacksmith burned the steel.
  4. To become overheated to the point of being unusable.
    • The grill was too hot and the steak burned.
  5. To make or produce by the application of fire or burning heat.
    • to burn a hole; to burn letters into a block
    • 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. - 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], translated by H....
  6. To give off light; to be lit up.
    • I knew that if a light was burning I should be able to see the window lit up from the yard at the back, although the gas itself would be out of sight. - 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados:
  7. To injure (a person or animal) with heat or chemicals that produce similar damage.
    • She burned the child with an iron, and was jailed for ten years.

    Synonyms: scathe vitriolize

  8. To cauterize.
  9. To sunburn.
    • She forgot to put on sunscreen and burned.
  10. To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does.
    • to burn the mouth with pepper
    • This tyrant fever burns me up. - 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,...
    • This dry sorrow burns up all my tears. - 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
  11. To be hot, e.g. due to embarrassment.
    • The child’s forehead was burning with fever. Her cheeks burned with shame.
    • In ſlumbers oft for fere I quake / For hete & cold I burne & ſhake / For lake of ſlepe my hede dothe ake / What menys thys - a. 1542, Thomas Wyatt, “What menythe thys” in the Devonshire Manuscript, folio 12 verso
  12. To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize.
    • to burn iron in oxygen
    • A human being burns a certain amount of carbon at each respiration.

Forms

burns burning burned burnt brent no-table-tags glossary burn burnest burnedst burntest burneth - born

Synonyms

burn combust forburn go up outburn torch

Hypernyms

happen worsen

Hyponyms

blaze up burn to a crisp burn away burn down burn off burn up cinder deflagrate incinerate flare up flicker singe smolder smother sweal

Related

brimstone combust kindle

Derived

aburn are your ears burning burnability burnable burn a hole in someone's pocket burn away burn, baby, burn burn book burn bread Burn Bridge burn coal burn daylight burn down burner burn in burn in hell burn off burn one down burn one's boats burn one's bridges burn one's candle at both ends burn one's fingers burn one's toast burn out