burn-up
Britishnoun
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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]
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Travel very fast, as in This car will burn up the road . [1940s]
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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
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Marine markers can burn up to 3,000 degrees and are extremely toxic, officials added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
Some pieces stay in orbit, while others reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
And when space debris re-enters the atmosphere, scientists are on stand-by to issue alerts for objects which may not burn up before landfall.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Satellites, fall to Earth and burn up on re-entry all the time.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
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
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