burn down

phrasal verb

burned down or burnt down; burning down; burns down

of a building or other structure : to be destroyed by fire

The hotel burned down in 1922.

of a fire : to become smaller : to gradually produce less and less flame

We watched the fire as it slowly burned down.

: 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 In an amazing bout of bad luck, Whitby’s family also owns Betty’s, a restaurant on the Lahaina waterfront in Maui that burned down last August during that island’s devastating fires. —

Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 17 May 2024 One member even composed a training manual with instructions on how to form terror cells and burn down houses. —

Mark Mazzetti Jonathan Davis Anna Diamond David Mason, New York Times, 16 May 2024 Instead, they’re built up and burned down, then they’re rebuilt and improved in fits and starts, dragged into modernity — not without outrage and criticism — by visionary urban developers like Robert Moses (New York) and Georges-Eugène Haussmann (Paris). —

Peter Debruge, Variety, 16 May 2024 Today's listen In March, a coalition of gangs in Haiti toppled the country's Prime Minister, burning down police stations and shutting down ports and the airport in the process. —

Suzanne Nuyen, NPR, 13 May 2024 Masses of homeless families dodging gang members who burned down their houses and killed their neighbors have taken over dozens of schools, churches and even government buildings. —

Frances Robles, New York Times, 8 May 2024 The 2023 disaster burned down more than 2,500 acres and displaced thousands of individuals. —

Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 7 May 2024 Since Miami-Dade’s main waste incinerator burned down in Doral last year, tons of excess garbage have been shipped off via train to other counties, landfills are filling up and the difficult decision of where to build a new one still looms. —

Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 7 May 2024 Kansas City’s year-old Convention Hall burned down just three months before it was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention. —

Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 5 May 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'burn down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.