ppl. a. For forms see the vb. [f. BURN v.1]
1. Set on fire, consumed with fire.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xiii. 9. Brent faces [Vulg. facies combustæ].
1535. Coverdale, Jer. li. 25. A brente hill.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, II. 1015. Reft from the brent Temples of Troy.
1591. Spenser, Ruines of Time, 19. Th’ auncient Genius of that Citie brent.
1611. Bible, Jer. li. 25. I wil … make thee a burnt mountaine.
Mod. Many objects of value were discovered amid the ruins of the burnt houses.
b. fig. Fired with passion; inflamed, excited.
a. 1564. Becon, Humble Supplic., in Prayers, &c. (1844), 247. Brent with a fervent and unfeigned zeal.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 560. All his face Glow’d … So burnt he was with passion.
2. Burnt out: a. extinct after entire consumption of the fuel; sometimes fig.; b. driven out by a conflagration; cf. BURN v. 15.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. ii. 302. Burnt-out Seigneurs, rally round your Queen!
1837. De Quincey, Lake Poets &c. Wks. II. 108. It was a burnt-out volcano.
3. Affected or damaged by fire or excessive heat, scorched. † Burnt line: the equator. † Burnt zone: the torrid zone. In † Burnt planet, † Burnt Way, = COMBUST (Astrol.).
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 375. They destruied king and all And leften but the brente wall.
1552. Huloet, Burned rostemeate on the spyt.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 59. The marchaunt … passeth to Inde, By the burnte line or Equinoctiall.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. 142. Being under the burnt Zone, it was held uninhabitable.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 442. The ground was everywhere so burned and dry.
1862. Mary E. Rogers, Dom. Life Palestine, 17. Cattle were browsing on the scanty burnt-up pasture.
b. Of persons: That has suffered injury or pain from fire, or agencies resembling fire; esp. in proverb, The burnt child dreads the fire.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1820. Brent child of fier hath mych drede.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 45. Burnt childe fyre dredth.
1674. Duke of Lauderd., in Lauderd. Papers (1885), III. xxxii. 53. A burn’d Child dreads the fire.
c. Med. Adust. Burnt choler: ‘choler adust.’
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xv. 24. Hoate, cholerique, burnte, and pernicious humors.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, Y iv. Against a quartaine of burnt coler in haruest, take ye rote of fennel, parcely, of bochers brome, sperage, cinkfoyle.
4. That has been treated with fire for a specific purpose: a. Said of earth that has been burn-beated; of clay, bricks, tiles, etc. Also burnt-iron (see quot. 1881).
1387. Trevisa, Higden (1865), I. 97. Þe walles were i-made of brend tile and of glewe in stede of morter.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 687. Harts doe run ouerthwart the burned ground where the dogges can haue no sent.
1834. Brit. Husb., xvii. I. 367. Part of the field was dressed with burned clay.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Burnt iron, in the Bessemer and open-hearth processes, iron which has been exposed to oxidation until all its carbon is gone.
b. Of gold and silver: Molten, refined by fire.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 988. Þe borȝ watz al of brende golde bryȝt.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1304. His sadel was of brend gold newe ybete.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxx. A bordur a-boute alle of brent gold.
1488. Inv. Jewels of Jas. III., in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), II. 393. Item twa braid pecis of brynt silver bullioune.
c. Calcined or treated by fire for use as a drug, pigment, etc., as burnt alum, carmine, ochre, sienna, sponge, umber, etc. (see ALUM, CARMINE, etc.); † burnt-brass, obs. name for copper sulphate; † burnt copper, copper oxide; † burnt lead, lead sulphide.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 459. Cathereticks, burnt pumice-stone, burnt alum, burnt vitriol, burnt antimony or crocus metallorum … Causticks, live lime, burnt-brasse, sublimat mercury.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Lead, Burnt Lead, plumbum ustum, is … lead melted in a pot with sulphur, and reduced by fire into a brown powder.
1790. Richardson, Chem. Princ. Metallic Arts, 124. When it [copper] is exposed to a red heat … it separates in scales, which are called burnt copper.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 412. To medical practitioners in general, burnt sponge is known to be the basis of the Coventry remedy.
d. Impressed by burning or branding; branded.
1652. Advt., in Proc. Parliament, No. 163. A Browne bay Mare … a burned ○ upon each hip.
e. Burnt taste, flavor, etc.: a taste, etc., resembling that of something that has been burnt.
5. Of wine, etc.: ‘Made hot’ (J.); see quot. 1876; the precise early sense is doubtful. (Now only dial.) Burnt brandy: that from which part of the spirit has been removed by burning.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., 120. Commyng to … a tavern, called for burnt-wine, sacke, malmesie, hipocras and what not.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 222. Ile giue you a pottle of burn’d sacke.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 15 Jan. A cupp of burnt wine at the taverne.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 36, ¶ 5. I’ll lay Ten to Three, I drink Three Pints of burnt Claret at your Funeral.
1876. F. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Pref. 9. ‘Burnt wine from a silver flagon’ was handed … being a heated preparation of port wine with spices and sugar.
1880. Barman’s Man., 55. Burnt brandy … one glass of Cognac and half a table-spoonful of white sugar, burnt in a saucer.
6. Affected as with burning.
a. Of grain: Affected by smut, ergot, etc.; cf. 7.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. lvii. 77. Burnt Rie hath no one good property.
1806. R. Andrews, in Young, Agric. Essex, I. 295. Ears of smut, or what we call burnt wheat.
b. Affected by venereal disease.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 289. A burnt whore.
7. Comb., as † burnt-cat [F. chat brûlé], a sort of pear; burnt-corked a., blackened with burnt cork; burnt-ear, a disease in corn, in which, owing to the growth of a minute fungus Uredo segetum, the ear appears covered with blackened powder; † burnt-marked a., branded.
1690. W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 80. The Pot calls the Pan *burnt-arse.
1676. Worlidge, Cyder (1691), 216. *Burnt-cat, Lady-pear, Ice-pear … are all very good winter-pears.
1884. Liverpool Daily Post, 2 Jan., 4/7. Who make it hideous with their chalked or painted or *burnt-corked faces.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb., 150 (E.D.S.). *Burnt-ear, Ustilago in corn.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 465/2. Diseases to which barley is subject … the smut, the burnt ear, blight.
1705. in Lond. Gaz., No. 4163/4. A … Mare … *burnt-marked on the near Hip with H.
