burn

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an injury caused by exposure to heat, chemicals, or radiation

   There's a burn on my leg that has been hurting a lot.

2. 2
   verb

   to get a sunburn by overexposure to the sun

   I burned easily in the summer.

3. 3
   verb

   to burn with heat, fire, or radiation

   The iron burnt a hole in my dress.

4. 4
   verb

   to burn, sear, or freeze tissue using a hot iron or electric current or a caustic agent

   I had a wart burned off my foot.

5. 5
   verb

   to undergo combustion

   Maple wood burns well.

6. 6
   verb

   to destroy by fire

   They burned the house and my diaries.

7. 7
   verb

   to use up energy

   You should burn off calories through vigorous exercise.

8. 8
   verb

   to create by duplicating data

   I burned the mix cd with my laptop.

Etymology

From Middle English bernen (collateral form of brennen), from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew. 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, Icelandic brenna (“to burn”), Norwegian Bokmål brenne (“to burn”), Norwegian Nynorsk brenna, b…