burn up
3 meanings
destroy something completely by fire or heat, or be destroyed this way
What does "burn up" mean in this sense?
Examples
- The wildfire burned up thousands of hectares of forest within days.
- All the important records were burned up in the fire before investigators arrived.
- The spacecraft burned up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
How to use it
The most common transitive pattern, where a fire, heat source, or force completely destroys something.
The wildfire burned up thousands of hectares of farmland in just a few hours.
Used intransitively when the destroyed thing is the grammatical subject, common in aerospace and nature contexts.
The debris burned up as it passed through the upper atmosphere.
When the object is a pronoun, it must come between 'burn' and 'up', never after 'up'.
The protesters gathered the pamphlets and burned them up in the street.
The passive form works naturally, especially in news and scientific reporting when the focus is on what was destroyed.
Most of the satellite was burned up before any fragments could reach the surface.
Short noun phrases can also be placed between 'burn' and 'up', making both word orders natural.
They burned the evidence up before the authorities arrived.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
Native speakers use 'burn down' specifically for buildings and structures that are destroyed by fire. 'Burn up' is used for materials, debris, fuel, crops, and similar things — not for structures.
When the object is a pronoun like 'it' or 'them', it must go between 'burn' and 'up'. Placing the pronoun after 'up' is incorrect in English.
'Burn out' describes a fire that dies because it has run out of fuel, or something that stops working through exhaustion. 'Burn up' means something is completely destroyed or consumed by fire or heat — the emphasis is on total destruction, not on the fire stopping.
Usage
This phrasal verb is neutral in register and works in both spoken and written English. In science and news contexts it often appears without an object, with the destroyed thing as the subject (e.g. 'the satellite burned up').
make someone very angry (informal)
Sense 2: What does "burn sb up" mean?
Examples
- It really burns me up when drivers don't stop at pedestrian crossings.
- What burned him up was the fact that nobody apologised.
- Seeing that kind of injustice burns me up every single time.
How to use it
The most common pattern, where 'it' refers to a situation or behaviour and the pronoun object sits between 'burns' and 'up'.
It burns me up when someone takes credit for work they didn't do.
Used to front-load the cause of the anger, placing emphasis on the triggering situation.
What burned her up was that the manager never acknowledged the mistake.
A superlative-style structure used to highlight the most extreme source of frustration.
Nothing burns him up more than seeing people ignore the recycling rules.
A gerund phrase or clause describing the annoying situation acts as the subject.
Watching someone get away with obvious cheating burns me up every time.
'Really' is a very common intensifier with this phrasal verb and strengthens the emotional force.
It really burns us up that the same issues keep being ignored year after year.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
When the object is a pronoun, it must go between 'burns' and 'up' — you cannot move it to the end. This separation is not optional.
The subject of 'burn up' in this sense is almost always 'it' or a situation, not a named person. Saying 'he burns me up' to mean 'he makes me angry' sounds unnatural — it's the behaviour or situation that does the burning, not the person directly.
Because 'burn up' has other senses (such as being destroyed by heat), using the present continuous form can sound ambiguous or unnatural. Stick to simple present, past simple, or conditional forms for this meaning.
Usage
This is an informal American English expression, less common in British English. It almost always appears in the pattern 'it burns me up when...' with 'it' referring to a situation, not a person.
use energy or calories through exercise
Sense 3: What does "burn sth up" mean?
Examples
- Running for thirty minutes burns up around 300 calories.
- I went to the gym to burn up some of the energy I had after drinking too much coffee.
- Those extra calories can easily be burned up with a brisk thirty-minute walk.
How to use it
The most common structure, where an activity or person is the subject and the object describes what is being consumed metabolically.
Cycling for an hour burns up a surprising amount of stored fat.
With short, definite noun objects, the particle naturally moves to the end, right after the object.
I went for a long walk to burn the extra calories up after the party.
When the object is a pronoun, it must always go between the verb and 'up' — placing it after 'up' is not possible.
You've eaten a lot of carbohydrates today — try to burn them up with some exercise this evening.
The passive form is natural in fitness and nutrition contexts where the focus is on the calories or energy rather than who is exercising.
Most of the sugar you consume can be burned up during a moderately intense workout.
The phrase also extends naturally to emotional or mental energy, describing physical activity as a way of releasing tension.
She went for a run before the interview to burn up some of her nervous energy.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
When the object is a pronoun like 'it' or 'them', it must go between 'burn' and 'up', not after 'up'. Placing a pronoun after the particle is ungrammatical in English.
While short noun phrases can go between 'burn' and 'up', inserting a long or complex noun phrase in the middle sounds unnatural. Keep long objects after 'up'.
'Burn up' in the fitness sense almost always needs an explicit object such as calories, energy, or fat. Unlike some phrasal verbs, it doesn't work naturally without stating what is being burned up.
Usage
This phrasal verb is neutral and works in both spoken and written English about health and fitness. 'Burn off' is a very close synonym and slightly more common in British English, while 'burn up' is equally natural in American English.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does 'burn up' always involve actual fire?
Not always — intense heat is enough, even without visible flames. For example, a spacecraft burns up during atmospheric re-entry because of extreme friction and heat, not an open flame. The key idea is that something is completely consumed or destroyed by the heat or fire.
Can I say 'The documents have been burning up for hours'?
That construction sounds unnatural for this sense of 'burn up'. The present perfect continuous doesn't fit well here. It's more natural to say 'The documents have been burning for hours' or use a simple tense: 'The documents burned up in the fire'.
Does 'burn up' have other meanings?
Yes, there are two other common senses. In American informal English, 'burn someone up' can mean to make them very angry. There's also a sense of using up energy or calories rapidly, as in exercise contexts. This page focuses only on the fire and heat destruction meaning.
Is 'burn up' more common in British or American English?
The fire and destruction sense of 'burn up' is used in both British and American English without any significant regional difference. It's equally natural in news reporting, science, and everyday conversation on both sides of the Atlantic.
What kinds of things can 'burn up' as a subject (without an object)?
Typically physical materials that can be completely consumed — spacecraft, satellites, meteors, debris, and fuel are very common in scientific or news contexts. You can also say things like 'the crops burned up in the heat' when talking about destruction caused by drought or fire. The key is that the subject itself is the thing being destroyed.
Is 'burn up' used the same way in British English?
Not really — 'burn someone up' meaning to make them very angry is primarily an American English expression and may not be familiar to many British English speakers. If you're talking to a British English audience, they're more likely to use different expressions to convey the same feeling.
Can 'burn up' be used in the passive, like 'I was burned up by the news'?
No, this doesn't work naturally for this sense. The structure centres on an active trigger (a situation or behaviour) acting on a person, and the passive version sounds very awkward to native speakers. It's essentially never used this way.
Does 'burn up' always mean anger, or can it mean excitement too?
In this sense, 'burn up' specifically refers to anger and frustration, not excitement or enthusiasm. If you want to describe someone being fired up with motivation or excitement, a different expression would be more appropriate. Context usually makes the meaning clear, but the 'anger' sense nearly always involves a complaint or grievance.
Can I use 'burn up' to talk about something that annoyed me in the past?
Yes, the past simple works very naturally here. You might say 'it really burned me up when I found out' or 'what burned me up was how nobody said anything'. It's a common way to recount a frustrating experience in conversation.
What kinds of situations typically 'burn someone up'?
The phrase tends to collocate with situations involving unfairness, rudeness, double standards, or people getting away with bad behaviour — things like injustice, bad manners, ignored rules, or government incompetence. It describes the kind of anger that comes from feeling something is wrong and not being able to do much about it.
Does 'burn up' always refer to physical exercise, or can it be used for other kinds of effort?
It primarily appears in fitness and diet contexts, where the object is something like calories, fat, or energy. However, it can also extend to phrases like 'burn up nervous energy' or 'burn up adrenaline', where physical movement is still involved as the release mechanism. Using it for purely mental effort without any physical dimension would sound unusual.
Is there a difference between 'burn up' and 'burn off' in the fitness sense?
In practice, they mean the same thing and can usually be swapped without changing the meaning. 'Burn off' is slightly more common in British English, while 'burn up' is equally natural in American English. Choosing one over the other won't make your sentence wrong.
Can 'burn up' have other meanings, or does it always mean using calories through exercise?
The same form 'burn up' has other meanings in English, so context is important. When the object is calories, energy, or fat, the fitness sense is always clear. Other meanings apply in completely different situations, so in a health or exercise context there's no real risk of confusion.
What kinds of things can be the object of 'burn up' in the fitness sense?
The object is almost always an abstract quantity related to metabolism: calories, energy, fat, stored fat, carbohydrates, sugar, or kilojoules. You wouldn't typically use a concrete, physical object in this sense — the tightly focused range of objects is one of the clearest signs you're using the right meaning.
Can I use 'burn up' in the passive voice?
Yes, the passive is natural here, especially in fitness or nutrition writing. It's used when the focus is on the calories or energy rather than the activity itself, for example: 'Those extra carbohydrates can be burned up with a brisk evening walk.' It sounds perfectly natural in both spoken and written English.
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