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burning

burning

1 9.9
Damaging someone's skin on purpose with cigarettes or hot objects
  • noun
  • /ˈbɜrnɪŋ/
  • Offensive
: quemadura
  • The victim endured a horrific burning torture that left permanent scars on her skin.

Examples

  • Something pushed against the burning flesh.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Smell of burning flesh.

  • The odd burning patterns, the victims being burned on the inside but not the out.

  • I also associate sex with the smell of burning flesh.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • We're talking about burning their skin, blinding their eyes.

  • You never talked about the barracks or the lice or the bunks or the smell of burning flesh.

  • He described the burning as a slow and agonizing experience that felt never-ending.

  • Witnesses reported the burning of the prisoner with cigarettes as a barbaric form of punishment.

Antonyms

109 2.6

That helps the body or mind become healthy again

75 2.9

That makes pain or worry feel less strong

Idioms

Make the home warm and caring while someone is away

1 9.0

You feel that people are talking about you when you are not there

1 9.5

Asking someone if people have just been talking about them

9.9

To have a wild, loud party with dancing and music

A sudden sense that people are talking about you, often when your name is said

Compounds

19 9.9

A way of killing someone by tying them to a post and setting them on fire as punishment

burning question
  • Informal
13 3.5

An urgent question that needs a quick answer

burning bush
  • Literature
7 8.0

A bush on fire that God used to speak to Moses in the Bible

7 3.5

Using wood to make heat for a room or for cooking

5 3.2

Making electricity or heat by using coal as fuel

4 3.9

Using coal for heat or electricity

clean-burning
  • Specialized
4 5.3

Produces little smoke or ash when burned

burning bush
  • Specialized
4 9.1

A plant with white flowers that gives off a gas that can burn in hot weather

book burning
  • Offensive
2 7.2

Destroying books on purpose to stop political or religious ideas

1 9.9

A period in Europe when many people accused of being witches are killed, often by burning at the stake

free burning
  • Specialized
1 8.3

A fire that keeps going in open air, often like an electric arc

1 6.8

A shrub with bright red or purple leaves used for decoration

A stick or cone that burns slowly and makes a pleasant smell

A log that gives steady heat for hours in a fire

A strong feeling of love or interest that grows slowly

A stove that controls the air so the fuel gives heat for many hours

Surface Forms

burning singular
burnings plural

Morphology

burning = burn (transparent) = burn + ing

This sense denotes a deliberate act of burning (torture) and is a straightforward nominalization of the verb.

Etymology

Burning comes from the old verb burn, meaning 'to set on fire', and it can describe deliberate damage to skin by hot objects because those injuries are made by the same burning action.