burn
part of speech
verb (burn, burns, burned/burnt, burning); noun (a burn, burns)
meaning for a pupil
1) To be on fire, to make flames and heat: "The wood is burning." tree →
2) To damage or destroy with fire or heat: "I burnt the toast." tree →
3) To hurt your skin with heat, fire, chemicals or the sun. tree →
4) To feel very hot or painful: "My eyes burn." tree →
5) To use as fuel: "Cars burn petrol." tree →
6) As a noun, an injury from heat. tree →
7) A small stream (Scottish). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, burning is a chemical change: fuel joins with oxygen and gives off heat and light, and cannot be undone; the body "burns" food for energy. In safety: for a burn, cool it under cool running water for 20 minutes and tell an adult; keep away from stoves, kettles and irons; use sunscreen. Phrases: burn down, burn out, sunburn, burn the midnight oil.
examples
- The candle burned all night. tree →
- I burnt my finger on the pan. tree →
- Cool a burn under running water. tree →
- Wood burns and turns to ash. tree →
- Wear sunscreen so your skin doesn't burn. tree →
- The house burned down in the fire. tree →
- Running burns energy. tree →
- Don't burn the toast! tree →
note
Past: "burned" (more American) or "burnt" (more British); "burnt toast" as an adjective. Burning is not reversible. Don't put butter or ice on a burn.
In the corpora
- Cremation means the body is burned in a crematorium until only ashes are left; the dead person cannot feel anything.
- Nearly 2000 years ago a volcano buried a Roman town and burned a library of scrolls to black lumps that nobody could open.
- Some farmers smear fences with chilli and grease or burn chilli bricks, because chilli stings elephants' sensitive trunks.
- Milk calms a chilli burn better than water does.
- The crushed cane stems left over are burned to power the sugar mills.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «burn» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.