BURN

Definitions

1. 1. To consume with fire; to reduce to ashes by the action of heat or fire; -- frequently intensified by up: as, to burn up wood. "We'll burn his body in the holy place." Shak.
2. 2. To injure by fire or heat; to change destructively some property or properties of, by undue exposure to fire or heat; to scorch; to scald; to blister; to singe; to char; to sear; as, to burn steel in forging; to burn one's face in the sun; the sun burns the grass.
3. 3. To perfect or improve by fire or heat; to submit to the action of fire or heat for some economic purpose; to destroy or change some property or properties of, by exposure to fire or heat in due degree for obtaining a desired residuum, product, or effect; to bake; as, to burn clay in making bricks or pottery; to burn wood so as to produce charcoal; to burn limestone for the lime.
4. 4. To make or produce, as an effect or result, by the application of fire or heat; as, to burn a hole; to burn charcoal; to burn letters into a block.
5. 5. To consume, injure, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does; as, to burn the mouth with pepper. This tyrant fever burns me up. Shak. This dry sorrow burns up all my tears. Dryden. When the cold north wind bloweth, . . . it devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the Ecclus. xliii. 20, 21.
6. 6. To apply a cautery to; to cauterize.
7. 7. To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize; as, a man burns a certain amount of carbon at each respiration; to burn iron in oxygen. To burn, To burn together, as two surfaces of metal (Engin.), to fuse and unite them by pouring over them a quantity of the same metal in a liquid state. -- To burn a bowl (Game of Bowls), to displace it accidentally, the bowl so displaced being said to be burned. -- To burn daylight, to light candles before it is dark; to waste time; to perform superfluous actions. Shak. -- To burn one's fingers, to get one's self into unexpected trouble, as by interfering the concerns of others, speculation, etc. -- To burn out, to destroy or obliterate by burning. "Must you with hot irons burn out mine eyes" Shak. -- To be burned out, to suffer loss by fire, as the burning of one's house, store, or shop, with the contents. -- To burn up, To burn down, to burn entirely.