Word.ws English Dictionary

burning down

burning down is the present participle and gerund of burn down.

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

Questions about burning down

What is burning down the present participle and gerund of?
Burning down is the present participle and gerund of burn down.

Words near burning down in the dictionary

  1. burning bread
  2. burning bush
  3. burning bushes
  4. burning coal
  5. burning daylight
  6. burning down
  7. burning feet syndrome
  8. burning glass
  9. burning glasses
  10. burning hot
  11. burning house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burning down (page history and authors); burn down (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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