DCHP-1 Online
burn ((v.)) 
1 v. clear land by cutting the brush (def. 1) and burning it.
See also: brush ((n.)) (def. 1) burning (def. 1) burn off
- 1833 (1926) . . . instead of being shut up in the forests, you may obtain a healthy, airy frontage to some of the numerous lakes, which . . . enables the settlers to burn, when in the confined clearings in the heart of the forest there is not a breath of air stirring.
2 v. Mining, Hist. sink a shaft by means of fire.
See also: burning (def. 3)
- c1862 (1958) When I came to Pemberton I struck a job there, burning a coal pit for P. Smith and Company.
- 1910 He burned a hole in the frozen muck. . . .
- 1964 . . . Louis Rhodes was quietly burning his way down to bedrock.
- 1833 (1926) . . . instead of being shut up in the forests, you may obtain a healthy, airy frontage to some of the numerous lakes, which . . . enables the settlers to burn, when in the confined clearings in the heart of the forest there is not a breath of air stirring.