"fuse" definition, meaning, and origin

Noun

A wick or cord used to convey flame to gunpowder, a bomb, or similar explosive.
- The Government, having lit the fuse, is not going to be allowed to flee the explosion. - 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: Passed to you, Mr. Macmillan”, in Modern Railways, page 220:
Synonyms: fusee match
An otherwise stable arbitrarily long repeating pattern that, when perturbed from one end, destructively carries that perturbation at a constant speed to the other end.
Alternative spelling of fuze, a detonator, any mechanism igniting an explosive substance or device.
A tendency to lose one's temper.
- When talking about being laid off, he has a short fuse.
A kind of match for starting a fire:
Synonyms: fusee
1. A friction match for smokers' use, having a bulbous head which when ignited is not easily blown out even in a gale of wind.
2. A match made of paper impregnated with niter and having the usual igniting tip.

From Italian fuso and French fusée, from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

A device to prevent excessive overcurrent from overload or short circuit in an electrical circuit, containing a component that melts and interrupts the current when too high a load is passed through it.

Back-formation from fusion (“to melt”), first to verbal sense, then noun.

To liquify by heat; melt.
- Pure sodium is a lustrous metal... it fuses very easily at a temperature of 97°, and distils at a bright red heat (742°...) - 1891, Dmitri Mendeleev, The Principles of Chemistry (1905) 3rd edition, Vol. 2, p.553, Tr....
To melt together; to blend; to mix indistinguishably.
- That each, who seems a separate whole, Should move his rounds, and fusing all The skirts of self again, should fall Remerging in the general Soul, Is faith as vague as all unsweet: […] - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson],...
- All these were based broadly on the management framework of the old companies, except that the former Southern and North Eastern Areas of the old L.N.E.R. became separate management units, while the former L.M.S.R. and...
- Actually the New York, New Haven and Hartford, Boston & Maine, Maine Central, Bangor & Aroostook and Rutland Railroads already are doing so; if they are fused, they would have a combined route mileage of 5,269 and...
To melt together.
To combine through nuclear fusion.
To furnish with or install a fuse in (a circuit) to protect against overcurrent.
To stop operating, having been protected against overcurrent by its fuse blowing.
- When the bath overflowed, the downstairs lights fused, so we need a torch.
To form a bicyclic compound from two similar or different types of ring such that two or more atoms are shared between the resulting rings.