burn down

Verb

burn down (third-person singular simple present burns down, present participle burning down, simple past and past participle burned down or burnt down)

1. (transitive) To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing.
   • The police are hoping to find the people who burned down the cottage.
2. (intransitive) To burn completely, so that nothing remains.
   • A fire which started in the bedroom caused the cottage to burn down.
   • The first Earl's Court station (1871) was a wooden hut in the middle of a market garden. It served a District connection between West Brompton and the West London Line. It managed to burn down in 1875, and the Earl's Court of today dates from 1878.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 79

   Synonyms:

   burn away, burn up, burn, burn to a crisp, char up, cinder, combure, combust, cremate, forburn

3. (slang, transitive) To kill (someone), especially by shooting; to attack (someone).