burn down

phrasal 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

In one of many tonally jarring subplots, Vince works out a scam to burn down his dead mother’s house in Brooklyn to collect the insurance money with the help of a corrupt fire marshal. —Andrew Bernard, The Washington Examiner, 3 Oct. 2025

Four of them lived in a shed that subsequently burned down. —Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 1 Oct. 2025

The fire starts with pecan wood, burning down to glowing coals. —Staff Author, Southern Living, 24 Sep. 2025

Six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one structures burned down, including schools, churches, grocery stores, shops, banks, restaurants, and more than fifty-five hundred homes. —Dana Goodyear, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025

Rhymes for burn down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown