slow burn

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a gradual building up of anger, as opposed to an immediate outburst.

   I did a slow burn as the conversation progressed.

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slow burn British  

noun

1. a steadily penetrating show of anger or contempt

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slow burn Idioms  

1. Slowly increasing anger. It is often put as do a slow burn, meaning “gradually grow angrier,” as in I did a slow burn when he kept me waiting for three hours. The burn in this idiom comes from burn up in the sense of “make furious.” The term was first cited in 1938 and was closely associated with comedian Edgar Kennedy.

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Example Sentences

In Barclay’s deft hands, the film traces Preston’s progress from child prodigy to international hitmaker, a journey that feels like a slow burn as filmgoers come to realize the depths of the keyboardist’s personal despair in contrast with the sheer joy of his performance style.

From Salon

“But instead of said hyperscaler slow burn, it’s zoom to the second-order impact of ‘AI disruption’ already hitting bottom lines.”

From MarketWatch

Its 177-minute running time and unhurried pace may test some viewers’ patience, but the slow burn makes the case for how various indignities visited on a subjugated people can, over time, turn even generally pacific individuals into warriors.

From The Wall Street Journal

It’s a slow burn that draws one in steadily, thanks largely to Édouard Molinaro’s coolly patient direction and Jean Desailly’s extraordinarily controlled performance as a married but repressed schoolteacher who may have murdered the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of his wife’s girlhood friend.

From The Wall Street Journal

This relationship has been a slow burn for so many years, and so many people have an attachment and hopes for how it would come to a close.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• acrimony
• animosity
• annoyance
• antagonism
• displeasure
• enmity
• exasperation
• fury
• hatred
• impatience
• indignation
• ire
• irritation
• outrage
• passion
• rage
• resentment
• temper
• violence