Burn

Pronunciation

• GenAm IPA: /bɝn/, enPR: bûrn
• RP IPA: /bɜːn/, enPR: bûrn
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
• Homophones: Bern

From Middle English bernen, birnen, from Old English byrnan, beornan ("to burn"), from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną ("to burn"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu̯ (compare Middle Irish brennim ("drink up"), bruinnim ("bubble up")), present stem from *bʰreu-, *bʰru- (compare Middle Irish bréo ("flame"), Albanian burth ("Cyclamen europaeum, mouth burning"), Sanskrit (bhuráti, "moves quickly, twitches, fidgets")). More at brew.

Full definition of burn

Noun

1. A physical injury caused by heat or cold or electricity or radiation or caustic chemicals.She had second-degree burns from falling in the bonfire.
2. The act of burning something.They're doing a controlled burn of the fields.
• 2006, w, Internal Combustion Chapter 2, One typical Grecian kiln engorged one thousand muleloads of juniper wood in a single burn.
3. Physical sensation in the muscles following strenuous exercise, caused by build-up of lactic acid.One and, two and, keep moving; feel the burn!
4. (slang) An intense non-physical sting, as left by an effective insult.
5. (UK, chiefly prison slang) tobacco
• 2002, Tom Wickham, Prison Writing Chapter A Day In The Wrong Life, 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.
• 2006, S. Drake, A Cry for Help, “Any of you want to borrow some burn,” asked a scarred inmate known as Bull.
• 2006, , Community Safety: Critical Perspectives on Policy and Practice Chapter , 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...
• 2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles:As the prison week ended and the less careful inmates began to run out of burn they went through a peculiar begging ritual that I, never one to husband resources either, was quick to learn.
6. The operation or result of burning or baking, as in brickmaking.They have a good burn.
7. A disease in vegetables; brand.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be consumed by fire, or at least in flames.
   He watched the house burn.
• 2013-07-20, Welcome to the plastisphere, 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.
2. (intransitive) To become overheated to the point of being unusable.
   The grill was too hot and the steak was burned.
3. (intransitive) To feel hot, e.g. due to embarrassment.
   Her cheeks burned with shame.
   The child's forehead was burning with fever.
4. (intransitive) To sunburn.
   She forgot to put on sunscreen and burned.
5. (intransitive, curling) To accidentally touch a moving stone.
6. (transitive, ergative) To cause to be consumed by fire.
   He burned his manuscript in the fireplace.
• 2013-06-29, Unspontaneous combustion, 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.
7. (transitive, ergative) To overheat so as to make unusable.
   He burned the toast.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect.
8. (transitive) To injure (a person or animal) with heat or caustic chemicals.
   She burned the child with an iron, and was jailed for ten years.
9. (transitive) To make or produce by the application of fire or burning heat.
   to burn a hole;   to burn letters into a block
10. (transitive) To consume, injure, 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
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)This tyrant fever burns me up.
• John Dryden (1631-1700)This dry sorrow burns up all my tears.
11. (transitive, surgery) To cauterize.
12. (transitive, slang) To betray.
    The informant burned him.
13. (transitive, computing) To write data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip.
    We’ll burn this program onto an EEPROM one hour before the demo begins.
14. (transitive) To waste (time).
    We have an hour to burn.
15. (transitive, slang) To insult or defeat.
    I just burned you again.
16. (transitive, cards) In pontoon, to swap a pair of cards for another pair. Also to deal a dead card.
17. (photography) To increase the exposure for certain areas of a print in order to make them lighter (compare dodge).
18. (chemistry, dated) To combine energetically, with evolution of heat.
    Copper burns in chlorine.
19. (chemistry, transitive) To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize.
    A human being burns a certain amount of carbon at each respiration
    to burn iron in oxygen
20. In certain games, to approach near to a concealed object which is sought.
    You're cold... warm... hot... you're burning!

Derived terms

From Middle English burn, bourne, from Old English burne, burna ("spring, fountain"), from Proto-Germanic *brunnô, *brunō (compare West Frisian boarne, Dutch bron, German Brunnen), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrew- (compare Albanian burim ("spring, fountain") from buroj ("to pour, gush, derive"), Ancient Greek (phréār, "well, reservoir"), Old Armenian աղբիւր ("fount")). Doublet of bourn. More at brew.

Noun

1. (Scotland, northern England) A stream.
• 1881, Gerard Manley Hopkins, THIS darksome burn, horseback brown,His rollrock highroad roaring down,In coop and in comb the fleece of his foamFlutes and low to the lake falls home.
• 1881, , :He may pitch on some tuft of lilacs over a burn, and smoke innumerable pipes to the tune of the water on the stones.
• 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 105:When it was too heavy rain the burn ran very high and wide and ye could never jump it.

Related terms

• bourn