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.
"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
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.
