burn

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See also bùrn

Contents

English [edit]

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Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English bernen, birnen, from Old English byrnan, beornan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną, 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.

Noun [edit]

burn (plural burns)

Examples (act of burning)
  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, Edwin Black, chapter 2, Internal Combustion[1]:
      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, “A Day In The Wrong Life”, in Julian Broadhead, Laura Kerr editor, Prison Writing[2], edition Sixteenth Edition, Waterside Press, ISBN 9781872870403, page 26:
      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[3], Chipmunkapublishing ltd, ISBN 9781847470010, Chapter 7, page 94:
      “Any of you want to borrow some burn,” asked a scarred inmate known as Bull.
    • 2006, Peter Squires editor, Community Safety: Critical Perspectives on Policy and Practice[4], Policy Press, ISBN 9781861347305 1861347308, page 23:
      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 peculair begging ritual that I, never one to husband resources either, was quick to learn.
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from the noun “burn”
Translations [edit]
a physical injury caused by heat or caustic chemicals
the act of burning something
physical sensation in the muscles following strenuous exercise
intense non-physical sting
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb [edit]

burn (third-person singular simple present burns, present participle burning, simple past and past participle burned or burnt (mostly UK))

  1. (intransitive) To be consumed by fire, or at least in flames.
    He watched the house burn.
  2. (intransitive) To become overheated so as to make 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.
  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.
  7. (transitive, ergative) To overheat so as to make unusable.
    He burned the toast.
  8. (transitive) To injure (a person or animal) with heat or caustic chemicals.
    She burned the child with an iron, and was put in jail for ten years.
  9. (transitive, slang) To betray.
    The informant burned him.
  10. (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.
  11. (transitive) To waste (time).
    We have an hour to burn.
  12. (transitive, slang) To insult or defeat.
    I just burned you again.
  13. (transitive, card games) In pontoon, to swap a pair of cards for another pair. Also to deal a dead card.
  14. (photography) To increase the exposure for certain areas of a print in order to make them lighter (compare dodge).
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from the verb “burn”
Translations [edit]
be consumed by fire
become overheated
feel hot
sunburn — see sunburn
curling: accidentally touch a moving stone
cause to be consumed by fire
overheat
injure (a person or animal) with heat or caustic chemicals
betray
write data
waste (time)
slang: insult or defeat
pontoon: swap a pair of cards for another pair; deal a dead card
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2 [edit]

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

Noun [edit]

burn (plural burns)

  1. (Scotland, northern England) A stream.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 105:
      When it was too heavy rain the burn ran very high and wide and ye could never jump it.
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
stream
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References [edit]

  • “burn” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
  • Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4[5]

Scots [edit]

Noun [edit]

burn (plural burns)

  1. A small river.
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