burn

Less common meanings

14. 14
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    To cause someone to lose money or come to other harm, especially by cheating them, through a bad deal, or when their trust proves misplaced.

    Plenty of small investors got burned when the fund collapsed.

    After her business partner emptied their joint account, she swore no one would burn her like that again.

    UsageMostly in the passive: get burned, be burned by a bad deal or a false friend.

    Similarcheat, sting, swindle, con

15. 15
    redden in sunverbtransitive or intransitive

    To develop reddened, sore skin as a result of too much sun exposure.

    With my fair skin, I burn within ten minutes at the beach unless I wear sunscreen.

    Tourists often burned on the first day of their trip.

    UsageOften used with easily: I burn easily in the sun.

    Similarredden

16. 16
    verbtransitive

    To consume fuel or stored energy in making heat or power, in the way the body uses up calories and fat.

    Muscles burn fat as well as sugar during a long, steady run.

    The backup generator burns about a gallon of diesel every hour.

    Similarconsume, use

17. 17
    clever insultnounslangcountable or uncountable

    An effective insult, especially a clever or cutting one.

    Her reply landed as the sharpest burn of the night.

    The crowd cheered after that savage burn.

    Similardig, zinger, put-down, insult, diss

    Oppositecompliment

    Note

    Slang's name for the insult that lands. Its signature phrase is sick burn, where sick praises rather than condemns: the speaker admires the cleverness, whoever the target was. Because it is slang, it belongs in banter and commentary rather than formal writing, where cutting remark or put-down does the same work.

18. 18
    verbslangtransitive

    To insult someone, or to defeat them soundly.

    He totally burned the other team in the debate.

    Rivals love to burn each other on social media.

    Similarroast, destroy, crush, trounce, own

    Note

    The verb behind the noun for a cutting insult, and just as slangy. It covers both the clever put-down and an outright win, so "I just burned you again" could follow a joke or a game. Keep it for casual talk; in formal writing, mock or defeat says the same thing.

19. 19
    nouncountable

    A scorch mark, hole, or other damage that fire or heat has made in something.

    The landlord kept part of the deposit because of a cigarette burn in the carpet.

    Sparks from the fireplace left tiny burns all over the rug.

    Similarscorch

    Note

    Objects get burns the way skin does in the injury. Common compounds name the cause: cigarette burn, iron burn, burn mark. A scorch is lighter, a discoloration on the surface, while a burn may char right through, leaving a hole in a carpet or tablecloth that no cleaning will remove. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Heat damage can char fabric all the way through and leave holes. www2.cs.arizona.edu
    • Severe burn damage to fabric or carpet cannot be remedied by cleaning alone. site.extension.uga.edu
20. 20
    betrayverbslangtransitive

    To betray someone, especially a person who trusted you.

    After he burned his oldest friend to get the promotion, nobody at the office trusted him again.

    He swore he would never burn a partner, no matter the pressure.

    Similarbetray, double-cross, shop, grass

    Note

    Slang for betrayal, typically by someone who informs: the informant burned him. It is blunter and more conspiratorial than betray, and it belongs in informal speech. Its close relative in spy talk is exposing an agent's cover, where the damage done is to a hidden identity rather than to trust.

21. 21
    feel hotverbintransitive

    To feel hot, often as a result of an emotion such as embarrassment.

    His cheeks burned with embarrassment as the room fell silent.

    I could feel my face burn at the unexpected compliment.

    UsageUsually with with for the cause: cheeks burning with shame, a forehead burning with fever.

    Similarflush, blush, glow, redden

    Note

    The pairing with cold is old. Thomas Wyatt, writing before 1542, has "For hete & cold I burne & shake", describing a sleepless night of fear and aching. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The pairing of burning with cold is historically attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Wyatt wrote the quoted poem. en.wikibooks.org
    • The quotation is dated before 1542, referring to composition rather than first printed publication. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quoted line has the stated wording, with the manuscript's initial double f normalized to a capital F. en.wikibooks.org
    • The surrounding stanza describes disturbed sleep, fear and an aching head. en.wikibooks.org
22. 22
    emotional stingnounslangcountable or uncountable

    An intense emotional sting, such as the feeling left by shame or an effective insult.

    The burn of public failure can linger for years.

    Her cruel words left a burn he couldn't shake.

    Similarsting, pain, hurt, wound

    Note

    The feeling an insult leaves behind, rather than the insult itself. It sits between the stinging sensation and the insult that causes it. If you say a remark left a burn, you mean the lingering sting. If the remark itself was a burn, you mean the insult. Both are slang, so they suit conversation better than formal prose.

23. 23
    disc writingnouncountable or uncountable

    The process of writing data to a permanent storage medium such as a CD or ROM chip.

    The burn failed halfway through, leaving the disc unusable.

    If you run other heavy programs during the burn, the disc may end up with unreadable files.

    Note

    Computing turned the verb into a countable noun: a burn is one writing session, and discs can take more than one. Maria Langer's Mac OS X 10.2 Advanced (2002) explains that allowing additional burns creates a multisession CD that can be written to again. A burn can also fail midway, which is why the word is so often counted and checked. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The author and title are correct, but Langer's own bibliography dates publication to December 2002. aneclecticmind.com
    • Langer explains that allowing additional burns creates a multisession CD that accepts further data. en.wiktionary.org
    • A disc burn can fail before completion. support.apple.com
24. 24
    produce by heatverbtransitive

    To make or produce something through the application of fire or intense heat.

    The bricks for the old church were burned in a kiln just outside the village.

    In the hills above town, a few families still burn lime in stone kilns and sell it to local builders.

    Similarfire, bake, char

    Note

    Here fire makes rather than destroys: you burn a hole, burn letters into a block, burn charcoal. That last phrase is the trap. In H.L. Brækstad's translation of Asbjørnsen's Norwegian folk tales, men "had been burning charcoal", meaning producing it from wood. Burning charcoal on a grill consumes it instead, as in the plain destroying sense. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • H. L. Brækstad translated Asbjørnsen's Norwegian folk tales. fiftywordsforsnow.com
    • The translation contains the exact words 'had been burning charcoal', describing an activity previously carried out at a place. fiftywordsforsnow.com
    • Burning charcoal can mean manufacturing it from wood. en.wiktionary.org
25. 25
    verbtransitive

    To cauterize a wound or tissue, using heat to seal or destroy it.

    The surgeon burned the edges of the cut to close it.

    Doctors can burn abnormal tissue to keep it from spreading.

    Similarcauterize, sear

    Note

    Surgery borrows the everyday verb for cauterizing. The physical act matches the injuring sense, since heat is applied to tissue, but the intent is the reverse: the surgeon burns to seal or remove, not to harm. Only context tells you whether burned tissue was damaged or treated. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Cauterization can destroy tissue using heat. training.seer.cancer.gov
    • Surgical burning has a therapeutic purpose: destroying unwanted tissue or sealing bleeding vessels. training.seer.cancer.gov
26. 26
    nuclear fusionverbintransitive

    Of an element, to be turned into another element through nuclear fusion, especially in a star; of a star, to fuse an element in this way.

    Hydrogen burns to helium in the core of every main-sequence star.

    Heavier elements burn only when a star grows hot enough.

    Similarfuse

    Note

    Astrophysics stretches the chemical sense past chemistry: an element burns in a star without oxygen or flame, by fusing into another element. The element is the subject and the product follows to, as in hydrogen burns to helium. The star can be the subject too, with the fuel as object: the Sun burns hydrogen. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Stellar burning is nuclear fusion that converts one element into another without requiring oxygen or a chemical flame. starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov
    • The Sun fuses hydrogen into helium. hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov
27. 27
    rocket firingnouncountable or uncountable

    A maneuver in which a spacecraft fires its rockets to change its trajectory.

    Mission control scheduled the burn for ninety seconds before reentry.

    A precise burn placed the probe on course for Mars.

    Similarfiring

    Note

    Spaceflight counts its burns. Jane's Space Directory (2004) logs a probe's second course-correction maneuver as a burn involving its four thrusters. The word is countable (a burn, two burns) and is scheduled and numbered like an event. It names the engine's work, not any fire on board. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The cited edition of Jane's Space Directory was published in 2004. archive.org
    • The directory describes a probe's second course-correction maneuver as a burn involving four thrusters. en.wiktionary.org
28. 28
    verbtransitive

    To compromise an agent's cover story, revealing their true identity.

    The leak burned three operatives working under deep cover.

    A single mistake can burn an agent who took years to embed.

    Similarexpose, compromise, unmask, out

    Note

    The usual idiom is burn someone's cover, and the burning can be self-inflicted. In Thomas H. Cook's Night Secrets (1990), a man "had already burned his cover" through his own mistake. In Vanessa Kier's Vengeance (2013), the fear is that a superior burned an agent's cover on purpose. A burned agent is exposed, not merely let down. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Thomas H. Cook's Night Secrets was first published in 1990. openlibrary.org
    • The novel's narration says that a man had already burned his cover through a mistake of his own. en.wiktionary.org
    • Vanessa Kier wrote Vengeance, published in 2013. play.google.com
    • In Vengeance, an agent suspects that his superior deliberately compromised his cover. en.wiktionary.org
29. 29
    darken photoverbtransitive

    To darken a chosen area of an image, traditionally by giving that area more light exposure during darkroom printing.

    The printer burned the bright background to recover lost detail.

    Photographers often burn the edges of a portrait to frame the face.

    Similardarken

    Oppositedodge

    Note

    The darkroom's paradox is that more light makes the print darker, because an area darkens the longer it is exposed. Printers burn bright skies and edges to recover detail or steer the eye. The name carried over into video and digital editing, where darkening a region keeps the old darkroom verb. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • More light exposure makes conventional photographic printing paper darker. ilfordphoto.com
    • Darkroom printers burn skies and edges. ilfordphoto.com
    • Burning can bring out highlight detail. ilfordphoto.com
    • Selective exposure can direct attention to parts of a print. ilfordphoto.com
    • Digital image editing preserves the darkroom term for selective darkening. helpx.adobe.com
    • Video editing also uses burn terminology for darkening effects. support.apple.com
30. 30
    noundialectalNorthern EnglandScotlandcountable

    In Scottish and northern English use, a large stream.

    We followed the burn down through the glen until it reached the loch.

    After a week of rain the burn was running high and brown under the old stone bridge.

    Similarstream, brook

    Note

    A northern word with its own history: it comes from Old English burne, "spring, fountain", and is a separate word from the verb of fire. It carries the feel of hill country, from the "darksome burn" roaring down to the lake in Gerard Manley Hopkins's Inversnaid to James Kelman's Kieron Smith, Boy (2008), where after heavy rain the burn runs too wide to jump. Elsewhere, stream is the everyday word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The stream noun descends from Old English burne. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English burne could mean spring or fountain. gutenberg.org
    • Gerard Manley Hopkins's Inversnaid describes a darksome burn roaring down to a lake. en.wikisource.org
    • James Kelman wrote Kieron Smith, Boy, first published in 2008. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel describes heavy rain making the burn too wide to jump. en.wiktionary.org
31. 31
    gun downverbslangtransitive

    To shoot someone using a firearm.

    He burned the rival dealer in broad daylight.

    Word on the street was that the gang had a gun waiting and would burn him the minute he came back to town.

    Similarshoot, plug, smoke

    Note

    A slang sense for shooting someone, at home in crime talk and best left there. Context matters, because in the same circles a person can also be burned in the betrayal sense. "They burned him" may point to a gun or to an informant, and only the surrounding story settles which.

32. 32
    blackmailverbtransitive

    To blackmail a person, coercing them with threats to reveal damaging information.

    Similarblackmail, coerce

    Note

    Intelligence jargon for blackmail. In John le Carré's Smiley's People (1979), Enderby asks "How does Leipzig burn him precisely? … What's the pressure?" The burning is the leverage itself: compromising material held over the target. That separates it from blowing an agent's cover, where the exposure has already happened. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Burn is intelligence jargon for blackmail. en.wiktionary.org
    • John le Carré wrote Smiley's People. en.wikipedia.org
    • Smiley's People was first published in 1979. cdn.penguin.co.uk
    • Enderby speaks the quoted words; the ellipsis omits the narrative attribution. en.wiktionary.org
    • The passage concerns pressure exerted through compromising material. en.wiktionary.org
    • The separate espionage sense concerns compromising an agent's cover. en.wiktionary.org
33. 33
    verb

    To render subtitles directly into a video while transcoding it, making them a permanent part of the image.
34. 34
    nounslangUK

    Tobacco, especially as used and traded among prisoners in Britain.
35. 35
    noun

    The process of firing or baking material, as when making bricks, or the product of that process.
36. 36
    noun

    A plant disease that leaves crops looking scorched, similar to blight or rust.
37. 37
    verbdated

    Of substances, to react together vigorously while giving off heat.
38. 38
    verb

    In hiding and searching games, to come very close to the thing being looked for.
39. 39
    verb

    In curling, to touch a stone that is still sliding, by accident, with a broom or the body.
40. 40
    verb

    In the card game pontoon, to exchange two cards for two new ones, or to deal out a card that is out of play.
41. 41
    verbslang

    In card games, to put a card aside unused, especially the top card of the deck.