Word.ws English Dictionary

watch the world burn

watch the world burn verb: to watch the chaos, pain or death that results from the actions of others or oneself with an attitude of detachment or indifference.

Verb

watch the world burn (third-person singular simple present watches the world burn, present participle watching the world burn, simple past and past participle watched the world burn)

  1. (derogatory, idiomatic, slang) To watch the chaos, pain or death that results from the actions of others or oneself with an attitude of detachment or indifference.
    • Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Forms of watch the world burn

third-person singular presentwatches the world burn
present participlewatching the world burn
past participlewatched the world burn
pastwatched the world burn

Origin of watch the world burn

Popularized by a quote from The Dark Knight (2008), from a character who explains about the motives of criminals such as the Joker.

Questions about watch the world burn

What does watch the world burn mean?
Watch the world burn means to watch the chaos, pain or death that results from the actions of others or oneself with an attitude of detachment or indifference.
What part of speech is watch the world burn?
Watch the world burn is a verb.
What is the past tense of watch the world burn?
The past tense of watch the world burn is watched the world burn.

Words near watch the world burn in the dictionary

  1. watch tackles
  2. watch the birdie
  3. watch the feathers fly
  4. watch the fur fly
  5. watch the pennies
  6. watch the world burn
  7. watch the world go by
  8. watch this space
  9. watch timing machine
  10. watch timing machines
  11. watch tower

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: watch the world burn (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-watch the world burn.wav.

Cite this entry: “watch the world burn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/watch_the_world_burn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.