Definition of barn-burning
chiefly US, informal
: very energetic and impassioned
- a barn-burning orator
- barn-burning performances
- … he thought the market would begin a barn-burning rally as the leading world economies showed signs of life.
- —Robert Hurtado, New York Times, 18 June 1993
- Canada sneaked past the United States 69–62 in a barn-burning semi-final that went to double overtime …
- —Will Swanton, The Age (Melbourne, Australia), 16 Sept. 2008
