combust

present singular third person combusts · participle present combusting · participle past combusted · past combusted

1. datedtransitiveTo burn up, to burn away, to consume with fire.

   […] by combusting the steel in drillings in pure oxygen […]

   1895, Steel Works Analysis, page 16

   3 more examples

   But if it be combuſted or burnt, it leaveth very much fixed Salt in its own aſhes.

   1662, Oriatrike, or, Physick Refined, page 183

   […] and the latter built bonfires and combusted the royal effigy in the uncommunicative confines of their rearward premises.

   1898, Comic History of Greece, page 194

   […] and combusted the paper in a closed flask in an O₂ atmosphere (see Fig. 2).

   1968, Biological Effects of Transmutation, page 32

   Synonyms: combure, burn, burn away, burn down, burn up, burn to a crisp, char up, cinder

2. intransitiveTo burn, to be consumed by fire; to catch fire.

   Brom swore after that he spoke only the truth, the truth that as he sat by my side praying for my soul, my body had combusted into flame, the fire rapidly engulfing my entire being.

   2014, Adelais Selwyn, Eadric, volume 1

   Synonyms: go up, burn, forburn, go up, outburn, torch, catch fire, catch on fire

   1. figurativelyintransitiveTo erupt with enthusiasm or boisterousness.

      The audience combusts.

      2012, Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote, Happiness for People who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, →ISBN

      Synonyms: go up, burn, forburn, go up, outburn, torch, catch fire, catch on fire

comparative more combust · superlative most combust

1. obsoleteBurnt.
2. astrologyIn close conjunction with the sun (so that its astrological influence is "burnt up"), sometimes specified to be within 8 degrees 30'.

   Guianerius had a patient could make Latin verses when the moon was combust, otherwise illiterate.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 3, member 1, subsection 3

   1 more example

   Who can discern those planets that are oft Combust, and those stars of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the Sun, untill the opposite motion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the firmament, where they may be seen evning or morning.

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica

1. obsoleteThat which undergoes burning.