Word.ws English Dictionary

burning off

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

Meaning of burn off

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To dissipate as the result of heat.
    • Near-synonyms: burn away, burn up
    Synonyms:
    burn away, burn up
  2. (transitive) To cause to dissipate by applying heat.
    • Near-synonyms: burn away, burn up
    Synonyms:
    burn away, burn up
  3. (intransitive, transitive, oil industry) To dispose of (unusable explosive natural gas from an oil well) by burning it as it emerges from the well.
    • Near-synonyms: burn away, burn up
    Synonyms:
    burn away, burn up, flare
  4. (intransitive) To fail due to overheating.
    • Near-synonym: burn up
    Synonyms:
    burn up
  5. (intransitive, transitive) To fill (low-value air time) with programming not suitable for its original purpose.
  6. (transitive) To expend energy resulting from metabolizing food.
    • Near-synonyms: burn away, burn up
    Synonyms:
    burn away, burn up

See all 9 meanings of burn off

Questions about burning off

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

Words near burning off in the dictionary

  1. burning mirror
  2. burning mirrors
  3. burning mouth syndrome
  4. burning nuclear plasma
  5. burning nuclear plasmas
  6. burning off
  7. burning one down
  8. burning one's boats
  9. burning one's bridges
  10. burning one's toast
  11. burning out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burning off (page history and authors); burn off (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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Cite this entry: “burning off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burning_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.