incinerate
[in-sin-uh-reyt]
- to burn or reduce to ashes; cremate.
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Origin of incinerate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for incinerate
Historical Examples
Also, we incinerate our victims—again, with full governmental permission.
This Crowded EarthRobert Bloch
To incinerate is to reduce to ashes; the sense differs little from that of cremate, but it is in less popular use.
English Synonyms and AntonymsJames Champlin Fernald
The soldiers, under the partial protection of the turn, could incinerate the helpless technies with little danger to themselves.
The Uaupes in the Amazons incinerate a corpse a month after death, pound up the ashes, and mix them with their fermented drink.
Encountering another globe, our sun would doubtless produce so much heat as to incinerate all planetary life.
Woman and WomanhoodC. W. Saleeby
incinerate
- to burn up completely; reduce to ashes
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Word Origin
C16: from Medieval Latin incinerāre, from Latin in- ² + cinis ashes
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for incinerate
v.
1550s, from Medieval Latin incineratus "reduced to ashes," pp. of incinerare, from Latin in- "into" (see in- (2)) + cinis (genitive cineris) "ashes," from PIE root *keni- "dust, ashes" (cf. Greek konis "dust"). Used earlier in English as a past participle adjective meaning "reduced to ashes" (early 15c.). Related: Incinerated; incinerating.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper