BURN DOWN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does burn down mean? 

• BURN DOWN (verb)
  The verb BURN DOWN has 2 senses:

1. burn completely; be consumed or destroyed by fire

2. destroy by fire

  Familiarity information: BURN DOWN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BURN DOWN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Burn completely; be consumed or destroyed by fire

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

burn down; burn up; go up

Context example:

The mountain of paper went up in flames

Hypernyms (to "burn down" is one way to...):

burn; combust (undergo combustion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "burn down"):

incinerate (become reduced to ashes)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Destroy by fire

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

burn; burn down; fire

Context example:

They burned the house and his diaries

Hypernyms (to "burn down" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Verb group:

burn; combust (undergo combustion)

burn; incinerate (cause to undergo combustion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "burn down"):

backfire (set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie fire)

cremate (reduce to ashes)

torch (burn maliciously, as by arson)

scorch (destroy completely by or as if by fire)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They burn down the trees

 Context examples 

Well, there was nothing left to do but kill the manager and burn down the laundry.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"If I didn't bowl up, I'd break loose an' burn down the shebang. My bowlin' up is all that saves 'em, I can tell you that."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)