burn

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To be on fire, or to damage or destroy something with fire or heat.

   The dry wood burned quickly on the campfire.

2. 2
   verb

   To hurt or damage something with heat, fire, or chemicals.

   I burned my hand on the hot pan.

3. 3
   noun

   An injury caused by fire, heat, or chemicals.

   She got a nasty burn on her arm from the iron.

4. 4
   verb

   To get red and sore skin from too much sun.

   I burn easily, so I always wear sunscreen.

5. 5
   verb

   To copy data onto a disc.

   He burned all his photos onto a CD.

Multiword verbs with burn

• burn off Phrasal verb A2

  to use up energy through physical activity

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Burn meaning “be on fire” comes from Old English and has a common Germanic ancestry. The Scottish noun burn, “small stream,” is an unrelated Old English word that also descends from Germanic roots.

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…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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