burner
(ˈbɜːnə(r))
Also 4–6 brenner, -ar, 6 borner.
[f. burn v.1 + -er1.]
1. a. One who burns, or consumes with fire.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 329 Alle brenneris of houses and cornes ben cursed opynly in parische chirches. 1502 Arnolde Chron. 176 Brenners of houses & chirches. 1563 Homilies ii. Wilful Rebell. i. (1859) 558 The burners of their villages. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. vi. (1852) 569 Weymouth also suffered from these burners no little damage. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 14 The burner of books and the tormentor of those who wrote them. |
b. fig.
| 1872 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lix. 12 Persecutors in talk, burners and stabbers with the tongue. |
c. A swindler. U.S. ? Obs. (Cf. burn v.1 14 f.)
| 1838 Lexington Observer & Reporter 3 Nov., He pulls out his pocket book, it is seized by the burner who makes off with it. 1842 Philad. Spirit of Times 15 Jan. (Th.), The burners make better plots than most of our dramatists. 1844 [see burn v.1 14 f]. 1845 Congress. Globe 6 Jan. App. 118/1 The Empire Club [of New York]..consisted of gamblers, pickpockets, droppers, burners, thimble-riggers and the like. |
2. One who prepares or produces by burning. Chiefly in comb., as brick-burner, charcoal-burner, lime-burner.
| 1463 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (1790) 154 To pay to a lyme brenner ffor lyme vis. viiid. c 1500 Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 10 Parys plasterers, daubers, and lyme borners. 1562 Act 5 Eliz. iv. §30 The Art or Occupation of a..Lime burner, Brickmaker..Burner of Oare and Wood-Ashes. 1703 Art's Improv. p. xiv, The Trades of Brick-burners, etc. 1825 Bro. Jonathan II. 71, I mistook them at first for charcoal-burners. 1874 Linc. Chron. 4 Dec. in Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) To brickyard hands: wanted two steady men as burners. |
3. A vessel to hold something that is burning.
| 1856 T. Hook G. Gurney I. vi. (L) To put three or four of the pastilles into a burner on the chimney-piece. |
4. a. That part of an illuminating apparatus from which the flame comes; in a lamp the wick-holder; in a gas-light the part containing the hole or holes through which the gas passes before combustion. Often with defining words, as Argand burner, batwing burner, Bunsen burner, cockspur burner, fish-tail burner.
| 1790 Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 162 A simple Argand's burner. 1808 Murdoch in Phil. Trans. XCVIII. 125 The burners..are connected with the mains, by short tubes. 1828 Miss Mitford Village (1863) 113 The luminary..had four burners, which never..were all in action together. 1886 Harper's Mag. LXXII. 463/2 From the centre of the dome a large chandelier was suspended, furnished with four electric burners. |
b. Welsbach incandescent gas burner, a burner devised by Auer von Welsbach for producing an incandescent light by means of a mantle (see mantle n. 5 g) and Bunsen burner. Also called the Auer burner, incandescent burner, or Welsbach burner.
| 1894 [see incandescent a. 1 d]. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 260/2 Incandescent Burners. The invention of the Welsbach mantle places at the disposal of lighthouse authorities the means of producing a light of high intensity. |
c. In a gas cooker, the part containing the hole or holes through which the gas passes before combustion. See also cook v.1 1 b.
| 1885 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List Jan. 368 Gas stove.., lever taps to hot-plate, and extra simmering burner in centre of ring burner, with brass handle tap. 1963 Good Housek. Setting Up Home viii. 113 A cooker with four burners and a grill is the usual choice for family cooking. Ibid., Oven burners may be arranged at the sides or back. |