bra burner
- noun
- Slang
- That spin class was such a bra burner—my shirt was soaked by the end.
Examples
-
Her trainer promised the next session would be a real bra burner.
-
That class was a real bra burner!
-
After hiking up the mountain, we all agreed we'd had a serious bra burner.
-
I enjoy doing a bra burner every Saturday.
-
After hiking up the mountain, we all agreed we'd had a serious bra burner.
-
Her trainer promised that the next session would be a real bra burner.
-
That spin class was such a bra burner—my shirt was soaked with sweat by the end.
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
bra + burner
The compound combines 'bra' (women's undergarment) and 'burner' (something that burns), so a learner could plausibly infer a metaphorical sense relating to heat or heavy exertion that affects bras. However, the specific slang sense referring to an intense, sweat-inducing workout (and its cultural allusions to 'bra-burning') is metaphorical and culturally loaded, so the exact meaning is not reliably predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Bra burner may come from the image of a woman exercising so hard she gets very hot and sweaty, as if her bra were on a burner. So, it means 'a very hard, sweaty workout'.