burn-up
noun
a period of fast driving
burn-up
Britishnoun
burn up
Idioms
-
burn someone up . Make angry or very irritated, as in Arthur was really burned up at his son for denting the new car , or Those careless drivers just burn me up . [ Colloquial ; c. 1920]
-
Travel very fast, as in This car will burn up the road . [1940s]
-
Easily surpass or outdo, as in They'll burn up the other teams . [ Slang ; late 1970s]
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.
See Examples For:
"The process is akin to atmospheric burn-up when a satellite re-enters the Earth's upper atmosphere, but has extended over a period of a billion years," he said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2025
According to Nasa, the ISS will "perform a detailed investigation" on how the debris survived burn-up.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2024
The ability to achieve high burn-up rates at atmospheric pressure was desirable.
From Forbes ● Sep. 22, 2014
Some proposals that have been floated for ADR include targeted laser systems to nudge debris into atmospheric burn-up or spacecraft equipped with tethers or nets to drag pieces of debris out of orbit.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 31, 2011
The initial rate of burn-up was only 50 tons a day.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some pieces stay in orbit, while others reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Should it burn up, it could not be immediately replaced.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Meteors appear as glowing streaks when tiny bits of dust, pebbles, or rock burn up while entering Earth's atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2025
As Earth passes through debris left by the comet, tiny particles the size of a grain of sand burn up in our atmosphere and leave a streak of light through the sky.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
He imagined being in Frank’s position, his life so fragile, it literally could burn up at any 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.
