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afterburner

afterburner

5 8.0
A device on a jet engine that injects fuel into the hot exhaust to give extra thrust
  • noun
  • /ˈæftərˌbɜrnər/
  • Specialized
: poscombustor
  • Getting a block to seal the backside pursuit, he turned up the sideline and kicked in the afterburner.
  • kicked in the afterburner
  • fuel-gobbling afterburners
  • hit the afterburners

And it's literally as close as this mic is the nozzle, the afterburner nozzle of the, of the Boss my, the number one aircraft.

Examples

  • During the test flight, the pilot engaged the afterburner to demonstrate the aircraft's enhanced speed capabilities.

  • Time to light the afterburners.

  • The senior tight end ran some 40 yards, turning the afterburners on to get away from the pursuing defense.

    Blog text (11)
  • The second sector was where Macdonald lit the afterburners and went first both in the sector and overall.

    Blog text (22)
  • The only thing that produces a comparable psychological impact on the listener is a jet taking off with full afterburner.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Carlton's planes go into emergency climb, standing on their afterburners to escape the inferno.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • INT. Nathan's Car - Driving Nathan kicks in the afterburners.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The fighter jet accelerated rapidly after activating its afterburner to gain altitude quickly.

  • The engineer explained how the afterburner works by injecting fuel into the exhaust stream for extra thrust.

Surface Forms

afterburner singular
afterburners plural

Morphology

afterburner = burner (transparent) = after + burn + er

The word is built as a compound 'after' + 'burner' (where 'burner' = burn + -er), and the meaning — a burner located after the main combustion stage — is directly inferable. [Postprocessing: moved 'after' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Afterburner comes from the parts after ('after') and burn ('to burn'), and it names a device that burns fuel after the main engine to give extra push, which is why jets turn it on to speed up quickly.