burning

Pluralburnings

1. 1
   adjective

   Engulfed in flames; on fire.

   The burning barn collapsed before crews could control the blaze.

   Smoke poured from the burning warehouse as the alarms sounded.

   Similarblazing, flaming

2. 2
   adjective

   So hot as to seem to burn whatever it touches.

   The metal railing was burning under the afternoon sun.

   She pulled her hand back from the burning kettle.

   Similarscorching, searing, blistering, red-hot, sizzling

   Oppositefreezing, icy, cold

   Note

   Here the heat only borrows the language of fire: the sun, a desert wind, summer pavements. Nothing is alight, which is how to tell it from the literal 'on fire' sense. A burning car is in flames, while a burning pavement only scorches. James Yoxall's The Lonely Pyramid (1892) has 'columns of burning wind' sweeping over travelers in a simoom.

3. 3
   adjective

   Experiencing a sensation of intense heat, as with a fever or flushed skin.

   Her skin was burning with fever by midnight.

   He woke up burning and reached for a glass of water.

   Similarfeverish, hot, fevered, flushed

   Oppositecold, chilled

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of burn.

   The logs were burning steadily in the fireplace.

   Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the air.

   Note

   This one form does two jobs. After be it is the participle of a progressive tense, and burn can stand there with or without an object: the logs are burning, or someone is burning leaves. As a gerund it fills a noun's slot yet still takes a direct object (burning coal is cheap). That is what separates it from the noun for the act, which needs of: the burning of coal.

5. 5
   adjective

   Intensely strong and consuming; fierce and powerful.

   A burning ambition drove her to work late every night.

   His burning enthusiasm spread quickly through the whole team.

   Similarintense, fierce, consuming, passionate, fervent

   Oppositemild, lukewarm, faint

   Note

   An intensifier that settles beside a few favorite nouns: zeal, passion, ambition. Dryden's The Spanish Fryar (1681) takes it into the hunting field with 'like a young hound upon a burning scent'. There the intensity belongs to the trail itself, a scent strong enough to drive the dog on. Today the word mostly describes inner drive, and it sits before its noun.

6. 6
   adjective

   Filled with intense passion or longing.

   The young poet was burning with desire to see the world.

   She arrived burning with hope for a fresh start.

   Similaraflame, consumed, afire

7. 7
   adjective

   Urgently important and widely discussed at the moment.

   Immigration became the burning issue of the campaign.

   Reporters pressed her on the burning question of funding.

   Similarpressing, urgent, crucial, critical, vital

   Oppositetrivial, minor, unimportant

   Note

   A collocation more than a free adjective: burning question and burning issue carry most of its use, and it works best before the noun. The heat is public argument, not private feeling. Keep it apart from the 'intense' sense, as in burning zeal, which describes what a person feels. A burning issue is one that everyone is arguing about now.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A fire, or an instance of something being aflame.

   The burning spread across the dry hillside by noon.

   Witnesses described the burning as visible for miles.

   Similarfire, blaze, conflagration, inferno

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The act or process by which something burns or is burned.

   The burning of fossil fuels contributes to air pollution.

   Slow burning of the candle lasted through the night.

   Similarcombustion, incineration

   Note

   In the plural it counts separate incidents, often deliberate ones. The Edinburgh Review of 1850 pairs 'burnings and wreckings' in accounts of riots, and church burnings is a familiar phrase in modern reporting on arson. The plural can also turn inward: Timothy Flint in 1828 writes of 'the burnings of shame, disappointed ambition, and vengeance', treating feelings as fires.

10. 10
    nouncountable or uncountable

    A sensation of fiery, stinging pain.

    The burning in his chest worsened after he ate.

    Patients often report a burning along the affected nerve.

    Similarstinging, smarting

11. 11
    noununcountable

    The permanent removal of cryptocurrency tokens from circulation by sending them to an address from which they can never be retrieved.

    The burning of surplus tokens reduced the circulating supply.

    After the burning, the project's coin became noticeably scarcer.

    Oppositeminting

    Note

    Cryptocurrency borrowed the everyday word for destruction that cannot be undone. The destination is called a burn address, also an eater address or black hole. Because no one can obtain its private keys, coins sent there can never be spent again, and anyone can check the transfer on the blockchain. The verb follows the noun: a project burns tokens to cut its available supply.

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