To consume with fire; destroy or reduce to ashesby the action of heat or fire.To act on with fire; expose to the action of fire: as, to burn clay; to burn wood for charcoal; toburn limestone.To produce by means of fire: as, to burn charcoal.To scorch; affect or injure by heat: as, to burn one's clothes by being too near the fire; to burn one's fingers; to burn bread or meat.To inflame or tan (the skin), as sunlight.To produce an effect like that of fire; heat or inflame; affect with a burning sensation: as, ardent spirits burn the stomach; a burning fever.In chem., to combine with oxygen; oxygenize.In surgery, to apply a cautery to; cauterize.To be on fire; flame: as, the fuel burns.To become charred, singed, or scorched; be injured by undue exposure to fire or a heated surface, etc.: as, milk or oatmeal burns if cooked without stirring.To become inflamed or tanned, or to become disintegrated by the effect of heat and reflected sunlight, as the skin from unusual or prolonged exposure to the sun or to the glare from a sheet of water.To glow like fire; shine; gleam.To be inflamed with passion or desire; be affected with strong emotion: as, to burn with anger or love.To act or behave with destructive violence; be in a state of violent action; rage.To be affected with a sensation of heat or burning pain, or acridity; feel excess of heat: as, the face burns; the patient burns with a fever.To resemble fire in the effect or the sensation produced.In certain games, to be very near a concealed object which is sought, that is, so near that one would be burned if it were fire; hence, to be nearly right in a guess.n. A hurt or injury caused by the action of fire, especially on a living body; a burnt place in any substance.n. The operation of burning or baking, as in brickmaking: as, they had a good burn.n. A disease in vegetables. See brand, 6.n. A clearing in the woods made by burning the trees. [U. S.]n. A rivulet; a brook.n. It occurs in various place-names, as Bannock-burn, Blackburn, etc.To burnish; brighten; make gay or cheerful.n. A burden for one person.To vulcanize (india-rubber) by mixing it with sulphur or metallic sulphids and heating to a properly determined temperature.To alter by means of heat, as a gem. Thus yellow topaz may be burned to pink, smoky quartz to brown and yellow (so-called Spanish topaz), chalcedony to carnelian, yellow or bluish zircon to the colorless variety, etc.To injure (plants) as if by scorching: said of the action of strong fertilizers.To become acidified as the effect of an excess of green herbage which has been plowed under: said of a soil.n. In the tobacco trade: The quality of leaf considered with reference to the completeness or incompleteness of its reduction to ash in being smoked.n. A damage sometimes suffered by tobacco in the process of curing (drying), due to excessive moisture in the air. Specifically termed house-burn when it takes place indoors, and pole-burn when the leaves are dried hanging on poles.
