BURN, v.t. pret. and pp. burned or burnt. [L. pruna, and perhaps, furnus, fornaz, a furnace. The primary sense is, to rage, to act with violent excitement.]

1. A hurt or injury of the flesh caused by the action of fire.
2. The operation of burning or baking, as in brickmaking; as, they have a good burn.

1. To be on fire; to flame; as, the mount burned with fire. – Exodus.
2. To shine; to sparkle. O prince! O wherefore burn your eyes? – Rowe.
3. To be inflamed with passion or desire; as, to burn with anger or love. – Thomson.
4. To act with destructive violence, as fire. Shall thy wrath burn like fire? – Ps. lxxxix.
5. To be in commotion; to rage with destructive violence. The groan still deepens and the combat burns. – Pope.
6. To be heated; to be in a glow; as, the face burns.
7. To be affected with a sensation of heat, pain, or acidity; as, the heart burns.
8. To feel excess of heat; as, the flesh burns by a fire; a patient burns with a fever. To burn out, to burn till the fuel is exhausted and the fire ceases.

1. To consume with fire; to reduce to ashes by the action of heat or fire; frequently with up; as, to burn up wood.
2. To expel the volatile parts and reduce to charcoal by fire; as, to burn wood into coal. Hence, in popular language, to burn a kiln of wood, is to char the wood.
3. To cleanse of soot by burning; to inflame; as, to burn a chimney; an extensive use of the word.
4. To harden in the fire; to bake or harden by heat; as, to burn bricks or a brickkiln.
5. To scorch; to affect by heat; as, to burn the clothes or the legs by the fire; to burn meat or bread in cookery.
6. To injure by fire; to affect the flesh by heat.
7. To dry up or dissipate; with up; as, to burn up tares. – Dryden.
8. To dry excessively; to cause to wither by heat; as, the sun burns the grass or plants.
9. To heat or inflame; to affect with excessive stimulus; as, ardent spirits burn the stomach.
10. To affect with heat in cookery, so as to give the food disagreeable taste. Hence the phrase, burnt to.
11. To calcine with heat or fire; to expel the volatile matter from substances, so that they are easily pulverized; as, to burn oyster shells, or lime-stone.
12. To affect with excess of heat; as, the fever burns a patient.
13. To subject to the action of fire; to heat or dry; as, to burn colors. – Encyc. To burn up, to consume entirely by fire. To burn out, to burn till the fuel is all consumed.

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. To be of fire; to flame.
   
   
   "The mount burned with fire." Deut. ix. 15.
3. A hurt, injury, or effect caused by fire or excessive or intense heat.
4. A small stream.
   
   
   [Scot.]
5. 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.
6. To suffer from, or be scorched by, an excess of heat.
   
   

   Your meat doth burn, quoth I.
   Shak.

7. The operation or result of burning or baking, as in brickmaking; as, they have a good burn.
8. 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.
9. A disease in vegetables. See Brand, n., 6.
10. To have a condition, quality, appearance, sensation, or emotion, as if on fire or excessively heated; to act or rage with destructive violence; to be in a state of lively emotion or strong desire; as, the face burns; to burn with fever.
    
    

    Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?
    Luke xxiv. 32.

    The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
    Burned on the water.
    Shak.

    Burning with high hope.
    Byron.

    The groan still deepens, and the combat burns.
    Pope.

    The parching air
    Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
    Milton.

11. 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.
12. To combine energetically, with evolution of heat; as, copper burns in chlorine.
13. 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 grass as fire.
    Ecclus. xliii. 20, 21.

14. In certain games, to approach near to a concealed object which is sought.
    
    
    [Colloq.]

    To burn out, to burn till the fuel is exhausted. -- To burn up, To burn down, to be entirely consumed.

15. To apply a cautery to; to cauterize.
16. 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.