burn off
Britishverb
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to clear (land) of vegetation by burning
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to get rid of (unwanted gas at an oil well, etc) by burning
noun
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Dissipate by heat, as in The sun will soon burn off the morning fog .
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Clear land by burning vegetation, as in They've decided to burn off part of the field to prepare it for another planting . This practice has long been common in many parts of the world, but the precise term dates only from the first half of the 1800s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Venezuela’s oil fields are heavily emitting in part because they contain large quantities of gas that must be burned off, or flared, because the facilities don’t exist to bring it to market.
“You want to melt your sneakers and possibly burn off your feet stepping on the wrong pile of ash?”
From Literature
To burn off my energy, my parents had enrolled me in dance classes at age 4.
As the morning marine layer burned off it revealed miles of dreamy California coastline, with sand cliffs tumbling to the shore.
Scott told the passengers that the plane had a mechanical problem requiring it to circle and burn off fuel.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
