burn down
verb1
To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing.
- The police are hoping to find the people who burned down the cottage.
2
Of a structure To burn completely, so that nothing remains.
- A fire which started in the bedroom caused the cottage to burn down.
- 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 1878.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 79:
3
Slang To kill (someone), especially by shooting; to attack (someone).
- Derived terms
- burndown, burn one down