BURN UP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does burn up mean? 

• BURN UP (verb)
  The verb BURN UP has 3 senses:

1. burn brightly

2. use up (energy)

3. burn completely; be consumed or destroyed by fire

  Familiarity information: BURN UP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BURN UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Burn brightly

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Synonyms:

blaze up; burn up; flame up; flare

Context example:

Every star seemed to flare with new intensity

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

burn; combust (undergo combustion)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Use up (energy)

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

burn; burn off; burn up

Context example:

burn off calories through vigorous exercise

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

consume; deplete; eat; eat up; exhaust; run through; use up; wipe out (use up (resources or materials))

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 3

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 up" is one way to...):

burn; combust (undergo combustion)

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

incinerate (become reduced to ashes)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

From that point, the spacecraft will begin to burn up like a meteor.

(Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn, NASA)

The aim is to eventually build more powerful laser beams that could push debris into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it would burn up.

(Australia Developing Lasers to Track, Destroy Space Junk, VOA)

We never shall be rich, and Plumfield may burn up any night, for that incorrigible Tommy Bangs will smoke sweet-fern cigars under the bed-clothes, though he's set himself afire three times already.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

After I've ben workin' like hell all week I just got to booze up. If I didn't, I'd cut my throat or burn up the premises.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The actual meteors are usually no bigger than a grain of sand, but when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere traveling at speeds upwards of 60 kilometers per second, they burn up in a mesmerizing color show of white, orange and green hues.

(Perseid Meteor Shower Provides Opening Act for Solar Eclipse, VOA News)

They were useful, pretty, or funny, a new standish on his table, a little vase for his flower, he always has one, or a bit of green in a glass, to keep him fresh, he says, and a holder for his blower, so that he needn't burn up what Amy calls 'mouchoirs'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)