burn down
Idioms-
Completely consume by fire, burn to the ground, as in Their house burned down and they had nowhere to go . [Mid-1800s]
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Diminish for lack of fuel, as in The fire will soon burn down . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One man, whose home of 13 years was destroyed by fire, said watching it burn down was "a feeling I'll never get over".
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
Fire can cook food or it can burn down your house.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
"The Commons could burn down at any time."
From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026
If you knew your home would burn down exactly one year from today, you’d take immediate action.
From Salon • May 1, 2025
The house could burn down around her, and I don’t think she’d pay much attention to it.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
