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.
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
She helped found the town’s first mosque, Masjid Al Taqwa, which would burn down in the fire.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2025
"As the peat continues to burn down it is finding the Word War Two ordnance and therefore exploding and we have now experienced over 18 ordnance explosions within key areas," the officer added.
From BBC • Aug. 27, 2025
“Anyway,” Percy said, “let’s try not to burn down the city this time.”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
