burnt offering
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of burnt offering
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
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.
In the superb season finale, Kendall is like a burnt offering kindling an unexpected sea of flames.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 10, 2019
But this novel is not simply a burnt offering, a Baedeker of dread and decay.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2017
As though the sheer bulk of that paper would deter me from putting it back in my wallet, and, defeated, I’d simply leave it there for you like a burnt offering on your sticky altar.
From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2010
Part burnt offering, part wailing wall, the basin testifies to calamity, but it stands--muscular proof that New York lives and life prevails.
From Time Magazine Archive
At two thirty-five Dale rolled up with nine men from Sky-line, mounted on Billy's ponies, besides O'Flynn, and Ransome Pollock, who may be good for a burnt offering but ain't much use alive.
From A Man in the Open by Pocock, Roger
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.
