burn down


Completely consume by fire, burn to the ground, as in Their house burned down and they had nowhere to go. [Mid-1800s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use burn down in a sentence

  • Standing straight, protect us by thy splendor from evil; burn down every ghoul.

  • When kindled, O Agni, burn down like dry brushwood, the man who exercises malice against us.

  • Exactly because she would burn down a street to boil her baby's milk.

  • If de house burn down ter night we all gwine git de surance sure nough.

    Three Little Women | Gabrielle E. Jackson
  • You'll be wanting the strikers to burn down the shoe-shops the next time we have trouble here.

    The Quality of Mercy | W. D. Howells