burn down

verb

burned down or burnt down; burning down; burns down
1
of a building or other structure : to be destroyed by fire
The hotel burned down in 1922.
2
of a fire : to become smaller : to gradually produce less and less flame
We watched the fire as it slowly burned down.
3
: to destroy (something) by fire
Vandals burned down the school.
burned it down

Examples of burn down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Haney argued that Rinderknecht’s remarks about burning down his sister’s home occurred five months after the Lachman fire, during a family argument. Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2026 The day that we were supposed to start breaking this episode — the series finale, the culmination of almost a decade of work — our showrunner Eric Kripke’s house burned down. Glenn Garner, Deadline, 11 June 2026 President Madison and his wife, Dolley, were forced to flee Washington during the War when British troops burned down the White House. New York Times, 11 June 2026 Kenneth Bass, brother of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, has sued the city of Los Angeles after his home burned down in the destructive Palisades fire in 2025. Britta Miller, The Washington Examiner, 10 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for burn down

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Cite this Entry

“Burn down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burn%20down. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.

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