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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

burn.

A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɜːn/Received-Pronunciation/bɔːn/Northumbria/bɝn/General-American
  1. A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals.

    countable · uncountable
    She had second-degree burns from falling in the bonfire.
    He burnt his hand with acid.
  2. A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals. A mark left behind by a burn; a scorch or scar caused by a burn.

    countable · uncountable
    Cut the cigarette burn out from the fabric.
    the burn scar on his face
  3. A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals. An abrasion resembling a burn.

    countable · uncountable
    carpet burn, rope burn, rug burn, turf burn
  4. A physical injury caused by heat, cold, electricity, radiation or caustic chemicals. A disease in vegetables, which causes discoloration that looks like a burn.

    uncountable
  5. A sensation resembling an injury from heat or an analogous force; the quality or nature of a burning sensation caused by capsaicin.

    countable · uncountable
    I dread the burn of the disinfectant where it enters an open wound.
    The burn in my eyes was caused by that bright light.
  6. A sensation resembling an injury from heat or an analogous force; the quality or nature of a burning sensation caused by capsaicin. A physical sensation in the muscles following strenuous exercise, caused by a build-up of lactic acid.

    countable · uncountable
    One and, two and, keep moving; feel the burn in your thighs!
  7. A sensation resembling an injury from heat or an analogous force; the quality or nature of a burning sensation caused by capsaicin. Anger, especially slowly mounting in intensity.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
    a slow burn
    The burn of anger remained in him.
  8. A sensation resembling an injury from heat or an analogous force; the quality or nature of a burning sensation caused by capsaicin. An intense non-physical sting, as left by shame or an effective insult.

    countable · figuratively · slang · uncountable
  9. A sensation resembling an injury from heat or an analogous force; the quality or nature of a burning sensation caused by capsaicin. An intense non-physical sting, as left by shame or an effective insult. An effective insult, especially a clever or funny one.

    countable · figuratively · slang · uncountable
    sick burn
  10. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning.

    countable · uncountable
    They’re doing a monitored burn of the fields.
    We went to the burn site to examine the evidence.
  11. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning. The act of using a controlled burn to reduce wildfire risk through use of low-intensity fires to eliminate fuel; a prescribed burn.

    countable · uncountable
    The burn will reduce the risk of a forest fire in the fall.
  12. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning. The operation or result of burning or baking, as in brickmaking.

    countable · uncountable
    They have a good burn.
  13. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning. The firing of a spacecraft's rockets in order to change its course.

    countable · uncountable
  14. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning. Tobacco.

    UK · metonymically · slang · uncountable
  15. The act or action of burning something with fire, or by analogous means; the quality or nature of an act of burning. The writing of data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw- Proto-Indo-European *bʰrénuh₁e-? Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-West Germanic *brinnan Old English biernan ▲ Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *brannijaną Proto-West Germanic *brannijan Old English bærnan Old Norse brennabor. Middle English brennen English burn From late Middle English burne, birne, metathetic form of brinne, brynne, a variant of brennen, from Old Norse brinna, brenna (“to burn”), from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil”). Doublet of brew. The late metathesis of East Midland brin- to birn- (and subsequently burn-) parallels the phonological development of bird and dirt from brid and drit. As this metathetic form became the Chancery Standard, it displaced the semantic functions and weak conjugation paradigm of the native Old English bærnan (weak), alongside the surviving remnants of byrnan (strong). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian prönnan (“to burn”), Dutch barnen, branden (“to burn”), German brinnen (“to burn”), Luxembourgish brennen (“to burn”), Vilamovian brīn (“to burn”), Yiddish ברענען (brenen, “to burn”), Danish brænde (“to burn”), Faroese and Icelandic brenna (“to burn”), Norwegian Bokmål brenne (“to burn”), Norwegian Nynorsk brenna, brenne (“to burn”), Swedish brinna (“to burn”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (brinnan, “to burn”); also Cornish bros (“blazing, boiling”), Irish bruth (“heat; eruption; surf”), Welsh brwd (“eager, keen; passionate, zealous”), Latin defrutum (“grape must reduced by boiling”), Ancient Greek πορφύρω (porphúrō, “to boil, heave”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium; mouth burning”), Armenian աղբյուր (aġbyur, “fountain, spring”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurvan, “runnel, spring”). More at brew.

verb/bɜːn/Received-Pronunciation/bɔːn/Northumbria/bɝn/General-American
  1. To be consumed by fire or in flames.

    intransitive
    He watched the house burn.
    The wood will not burn well because it is wet.
  2. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To contain a fire or coals.

    intransitive
    The wood stove was burning, giving off plenty of heat.
    The campfire died down, but it's still burning enough to feel some warmth through the night.
  3. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To become overheated to the point of being unusable; to become scorched.

    intransitive
    The grill was too hot and the steak burned.
  4. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To be executed by an electric chair.

    intransitive
    In this state, he could burn for his crimes.
  5. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To be hot, e.g. due to embarrassment.

    intransitive
    The child’s forehead was burning with fever.  Her cheeks burned with shame.
  6. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To approach near to a concealed object which is sought, especially in certain games; to be so near as to be figuratively burnt by a hidden target.

    figuratively · intransitive
    You’re cold… warm… hot… you’re burning!
  7. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To desire or ache for (something); to be intense, as a desire.

    US · figuratively · intransitive
    I burn for her touch.
    He tried to get over it, but he burned for revenge against those who wronged him.
  8. To be consumed by fire or in flames. To be converted to another element in a nuclear fusion reaction, especially in a star; to undergo nuclear fusion or nuclear fission.

    intransitive
  9. To warm (something); to put off intense heat; to be hot.

    ambitransitive
    The heat from the open oven burned the air around me.
    The sun's rays burned hot today.
  10. To warm (something); to put off intense heat; to be hot. To give off light; to be lit up; to shine so bright as to seem to harm (something).

    ambitransitive · figuratively
    That bulb has been burning for years.
    The spotlight burned my eyes.
  11. To warm (something); to put off intense heat; to be hot. To sunburn.

    ambitransitive
    She forgot to put on sunscreen and burned.
    The harsh summer sun burned his skin.
  12. To warm (something); to put off intense heat; to be hot. To irritate; to be or become angry or upset.

    ambitransitive · figuratively
    After you said that, she was burning all afternoon.
    Your comments got him burning.
  13. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames.

    transitive
    We'll burn all this wood by morning.
    The campfire was ready to go, so she burned it with her lighter.
  14. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To ignite (something); to light and smoke (a cigarette, joint, etc.).

    transitive
    She burned a cigarette with her lighter.
    I'm going to burn the stove now so the room will start warming up.
  15. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To overheat so as to make unusable.

    transitive
    He burned the toast.    The blacksmith burned the steel.
  16. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To kill by fire.

    transitive
    She was burned at the stake.
  17. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To transform using fire.

    transitive
    The factory will burn that wood into charcoal.
  18. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To use up; to use by burning; to consume as fuel.

    transitive
    I need to burn some calories.
    We can burn a candle tonight.
  19. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To use up; to use by burning; to consume as fuel. To waste time, money or other resources.

    transitive
    We have an hour to burn.
    The company has burned more than a million dollars a month this year.
  20. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To lose motor oil because it leaks into the combustion chamber and ignites along with the fuel.

    transitive
    I think my car is burning oil.
  21. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To cauterize.

    transitive
    I had to burn the wound to stop the bleeding.
  22. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To harden (bricks, pottery, etc.) in a kiln.

    transitive
  23. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To injure (a person or animal) with heat, flames or scorching.

    transitive
    She burned the child with an iron, and was jailed for ten years.
  24. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To injure (a person or animal) with heat, flames or scorching. To insult or defeat.

    figuratively · slang · transitive
    I just burned you again.
  25. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To make or produce by the application of real or figurative fire, light or burning heat.

    transitive
    to burn a hole;    to burn letters into a block
    The rancher burned his brand into the cow's hide.
  26. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To make or produce by the application of real or figurative fire, light or burning heat. To write data to a permanent storage medium like a compact disc or a ROM chip.

    transitive
    We’ll burn this program onto an EEPROM one hour before the demo begins.
  27. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To make or produce by the application of real or figurative fire, light or burning heat. To render subtitles into a video's content while transcoding it, making the subtitles part of the image (hardsubs).

    broadly · transitive
    My old DVD player could play DivX files but didn't recognize the subtitle file, so I had to burn them in.
  28. To cause to be consumed by fire; to destroy or otherwise impact with fire or flames. To make or produce by the application of real or figurative fire, light or burning heat. To make an area of an image darker (when processing photographs in a darkroom, this is accomplished by increasing the exposure of that area to light).

    transitive
  29. To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does; to injure with acid or other chemical reactions; to be painful as if by fire or heat; to be hot.

    intransitive · transitive
    Be careful, as that chemical is acidic enough to burn you.
    Habaneros burn more intensely than most peppers. They will burn your mouth.
  30. To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does; to injure with acid or other chemical reactions; to be painful as if by fire or heat; to be hot. To cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent, with evolution of heat; to consume; to oxidize.

    intransitive · transitive
    to burn iron in oxygen
    A human being burns a certain amount of carbon with each respiration.
  31. To consume, damage, or change the condition of, as if by action of fire or heat; to affect as fire or heat does; to injure with acid or other chemical reactions; to be painful as if by fire or heat; to be hot. To combine energetically, with evolution of heat.

    dated · intransitive · transitive
    Copper burns in chlorine.
  32. Senses as to a figurative burning action To defeat, overcome or score on.

    The Rangers burned the visiting team.
    They burned our defenses.
  33. Senses as to a figurative burning action To subject to misfortune or maltreatment; to swindle or rob.

    transitive
    I've been burned before by these kinds of promises.
    That's when we burn the mark, and we'll be gone before he knows what happened.
  34. Senses as to a figurative burning action To betray; to con or rob.

    slang · transitive
    The informant burned him.
  35. Senses as to a figurative burning action To shoot someone with a firearm.

    slang · transitive
  36. Senses as to a figurative burning action To compromise (a cover story).

    transitive
  37. Senses as to a figurative burning action To blackmail.

    transitive
  38. Senses as to a figurative burning action To swap a pair of cards for another pair, or to deal a dead card.

    transitive
  39. Senses as to a figurative burning action To accidentally touch a moving stone.

    intransitive
  40. Senses as to a figurative burning action To discard.

    intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw- Proto-Indo-European *bʰrénuh₁e-? Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-West Germanic *brinnan Old English biernan ▲ Proto-Germanic *brinnaną Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *brannijaną Proto-West Germanic *brannijan Old English bærnan Old Norse brennabor. Middle English brennen English burn From late Middle English burne, birne, metathetic form of brinne, brynne, a variant of brennen, from Old Norse brinna, brenna (“to burn”), from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil”). Doublet of brew. The late metathesis of East Midland brin- to birn- (and subsequently burn-) parallels the phonological development of bird and dirt from brid and drit. As this metathetic form became the Chancery Standard, it displaced the semantic functions and weak conjugation paradigm of the native Old English bærnan (weak), alongside the surviving remnants of byrnan (strong). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian prönnan (“to burn”), Dutch barnen, branden (“to burn”), German brinnen (“to burn”), Luxembourgish brennen (“to burn”), Vilamovian brīn (“to burn”), Yiddish ברענען (brenen, “to burn”), Danish brænde (“to burn”), Faroese and Icelandic brenna (“to burn”), Norwegian Bokmål brenne (“to burn”), Norwegian Nynorsk brenna, brenne (“to burn”), Swedish brinna (“to burn”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (brinnan, “to burn”); also Cornish bros (“blazing, boiling”), Irish bruth (“heat; eruption; surf”), Welsh brwd (“eager, keen; passionate, zealous”), Latin defrutum (“grape must reduced by boiling”), Ancient Greek πορφύρω (porphúrō, “to boil, heave”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium; mouth burning”), Armenian աղբյուր (aġbyur, “fountain, spring”), Sanskrit भुर्वन् (bhurvan, “runnel, spring”). More at brew.

noun/bɜːn/Received-Pronunciation/bɔːn/Northumbria/bɝn/General-American
  1. A large stream.

    Northern-England · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From Northern Middle English burn, from Old English burne, burna (“spring, fountain”), Proto-West Germanic *brunnō, from Proto-Germanic *brunnô, *brunō. Cognate with Scots burn (“stream”), Cimbrian, Mòcheno prunn (“well, spring”), Dutch bron (“well”), German Bronnen, Brun, Brunnen (“well”), Luxembourgish Buer, Bur (“well”), Yiddish ברונעם (brunem, “well”), Danish brønd (“well”), Faroese brunnur, bruður (“well”), Icelandic brunnur (“well”), Norwegian Bokmål, Scanian brønn (“well”), Norwegian Nynorsk brunn, brønn (“well”), Swedish brunn (“well”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌰 (brunna, “source, wellspring”), Crimean Gothic brunna (“spring, fountain, source”). Also Albanian burim (“spring, fountain”), Ancient Greek φρέαρ (phréar, “well, reservoir”), Old Armenian աղբիւր (ałbiwr, “fount”). Doublet of bourn. More at brew.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.