burner

UK/ˈbɜːnə/US/ˈbɝnɚ/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,230 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: burners

A burner is one single hot ring on top of the cooking machine. The front burner, four burners, turn off the burner.

It is chiefly the American word; British English says ring or hob. On the back burner means postponed, from the idea of moving a pan off the heat. A burner phone is a cheap one meant to be thrown away.

Definitions of burner

1nounburnerOne hot ring on a cooker.B1+
“She lit the gas burner and put the kettle on it.”
- Said"Turn the back burner down for me; the rice is going to catch."
- WrittenTwo of the four burners had died years ago, and the household cooked around them.
- UsedLight the burner before you set the pan on it.
- ContrastA burner, not an oven. The oven is the box you close; a burner is one open ring on top. oven →
- Not thisThe whole cooker is not a burner. A burner is one of the rings.
- SimplyThe burner is hot. Do not touch it.
Patternturn the burner on / off / down · the front / back burner · a gas burner · put sth on the burner

burner is a part of a cooker.

Also accepted in games: hotplate

Remember it

BURNer → the ring that BURNS

It is burn + er: the ring of fire under the pot, burning blue.

hooks ontoburn

Where it comes from

Burn plus -er. The word replaced the older brenner.

Middle English
brennar
English, today
burner

Built from

brennere · Middle English — an incendiary, incinerator

From burn + er. Merged with and eclipsed related Middle English brennar, brennere (“an incendiary, incinerator”). Compare German Brenner (“burner”), Swedish brännare (“burner”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

burner in the wild

A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form.
Censer
The upper burner relates the organs to the heart, therefore relating lungs in the thorax and the breathing function to Heaven.
San Jiao (Chinese medicine)
If the triple burner functions well, then the organs are in harmony.
San Jiao (Chinese medicine)
The Argand lamps used a gravity feed which meant that the oil reservoir was located above the burner, casting a shadow and making the lamp top heavy.
Carcel lamp
Carcel designed a lamp with the oil reservoir under the burner, in the body of the lamp.
Carcel lamp

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of burner

1nounburnerOne hot ring on a cooker.B1+

“She lit the gas burner and put the kettle on it.”

Said"Turn the back burner down for me; the rice is going to catch."
WrittenTwo of the four burners had died years ago, and the household cooked around them.
UsedLight the burner before you set the pan on it.
ContrastA burner, not an oven. The oven is the box you close; a burner is one open ring on top. oven →
Not thisThe whole cooker is not a burner. A burner is one of the rings.
SimplyThe burner is hot. Do not touch it.

Patternturn the burner on / off / down · the front / back burner · a gas burner · put sth on the burner

burner is a part of a cooker.

Also accepted in games: hotplate