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
The researchers at Kyoto University hope using wood in making spacecraft could also be much less polluting than metal ones when they burn-up on re-entry at the end of their life.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 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
Should it burn up, it could not be immediately replaced.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Another worry is soot, created when fuel burns and when plastic satellite parts burn up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 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 they do so, they burn up, creating the bright flashes we call meteors.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2025
Out of nowhere, Styx added, “It’s like building a bonfire to burn up all the things you hate. Except tiny, and all the time.”
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
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.
