fuse

plural fuses

1. A wick or cord used to convey flame to gunpowder, a bomb, or similar explosive.

   The Government, having lit the fuse, is not going to be allowed to flee the explosion.

   1962 October, “Talking of Trains: Passed to you, Mr. Macmillan”, in Modern Railways, page 220

   Synonyms: fusee, match

2. cellular automataAn otherwise stable arbitrarily long repeating pattern that, when perturbed from one end, destructively carries that perturbation at a constant speed to the other end.
3. alternativeproscribedsometimesbusinessAlternative spelling of fuze, a detonator, any mechanism igniting an explosive substance or device.
4. figurativelyA tendency to lose one's temper.

   When talking about being laid off, he has a short fuse.

5. A kind of match for starting a fire:
   1. A friction match for smokers' use, having a bulbous head which when ignited is not easily blown out even in a gale of wind.

      Synonyms: fusee

   2. A match made of paper impregnated with niter and having the usual igniting tip.

present singular third person fuses · participle present fusing · participle past fused · past fused

1. To furnish with a fuse, to install a fuse on.
2. alternativeproscribedsometimesbusinessAlternative spelling of fuze, to equip with a detonator.

plural fuses

1. businessA device to prevent excessive overcurrent from overload or short circuit in an electrical circuit, containing a component that melts and interrupts the current when too high a load is passed through it.

present singular third person fuses · participle present fusing · participle past fused · past fused

1. transitiveTo liquify by heat; melt.

   Pure sodium is a lustrous metal... it fuses very easily at a temperature of 97°, and distils at a bright red heat (742°...)

   1891, Dmitri Mendeleev, The Principles of Chemistry (1905) 3rd edition, Vol. 2, p.553, Tr. George Kamensky, of Основы химии (1867)

2. transitiveTo melt together; to blend; to mix indistinguishably.

   sensations and ideas fusing intimately together

   3 more examples

   That each, who seems a separate whole, Should move his rounds, and fusing all The skirts of self again, should fall Remerging in the general Soul, Is faith as vague as all unsweet: […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 69

   All these were based broadly on the management framework of the old companies, except that the former Southern and North Eastern Areas of the old L.N.E.R. became separate management units, while the former L.M.S.R. and L.N.E.R. lines north of the Border were fused into a self-contained Scottish Region.

   1958 January 28, 'Borderer', “Ten Years of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 13

   Actually the New York, New Haven and Hartford, Boston & Maine, Maine Central, Bangor & Aroostook and Rutland Railroads already are doing so; if they are fused, they would have a combined route mileage of 5,269 and assets totalling £318 million, [...].

   1960 January, “Talking of Trains: N.& W.-Virginian merger”, in Trains Illustrated, page 9

3. intransitiveTo melt together.

   Synonyms: meld, smelt

4. ergativeastronomyTo combine through nuclear fusion.
5. transitivebusinessTo furnish with or install a fuse in (a circuit) to protect against overcurrent.
6. intransitivebusinessTo stop operating, having been protected against overcurrent by its fuse blowing.

   When the bath overflowed, the downstairs lights fused, so we need a torch.

7. chemistryTo form a bicyclic compound from two similar or different types of ring such that two or more atoms are shared between the resulting rings.