different between burning vs afire

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /b?n??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??n??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)n??

Verb

burning

1. present participle of burn

Adjective

burning (comparative more burning, superlative most burning)

1. So hot as to seem to burn (something).
2. Feeling very hot.

3. Feeling great passion.

4. Consuming; intense; inflaming; exciting; vehement; powerful.

   • like a young hound upon a burning scent

5. Being keenly discussed.

   a burning question; a burning issue

Derived terms

• wood-burning, woodburning

Translations

Noun

burning (plural burnings)

1. The act by which something burns or is burned.
   • 1850, The Edinburgh Review, Or Critical Journal (volume 91, page 93)

     The propriety of the dissolution, too, was speedily seen in the improved state of the public peace: for twelve years we hear little of Orange riots, and nothing of such burnings and wreckings as those of Maghera, Maghery, and Annahagh.

2. A fire.

   The burnings continued all day.

Translations

Anagrams

• Bruning

English

Etymology

13^thc., from a- (“on”) +? fire. Figurative usage from late 14^thc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??fa??(?)/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)

Adverb

afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)

1. On fire (often metaphorically).

Adjective

afire (comparative more afire, superlative most afire)

1. On fire (often metaphorically).

Quotations

• 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1857, Seventh Book, p. 275^[1]:

  […] Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God:

• 1931, Nacio Herb Brown and Gordon Clifford, “Paradise” (song first sung by Pola Negri and later covered by Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra):

  Her eyes afire / With one desire. / Then a heavenly kiss: / Could I resist?

• 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, Chapter 63:

  Old claw-like hands, cracked with long years of thankless toil, would hold aloft a delicate bird of wood, its wings, as thin as paper, spread for flight, its breast afire with a crimson stain.

Synonyms

• ablaze
• aflame

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Arfie, Feria, Freia, faire, feria, rafie