Verb
burn down (third-person singular simple present burns down, present participle burning down, simple past and past participle burned down or burnt down)
- (transitive) To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing.
The police are hoping to find the people who burned down the cottage.
- (intransitive, of a structure) To burn completely, so that nothing remains.
A fire which started in the bedroom caused the cottage to burn down.
2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 79: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.
- (transitive, slang) To kill (someone), especially by shooting; to attack (someone).
Translations
cause a structure to burn to nothing
completely burn so that nothing remains