Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An enclosure in which energy in a nonthermal form is converted to heat, especially such an enclosure in which heat is generated by the combustion of a suitable fuel.
- n. An intensely hot place: the furnace of the sun; an attic room that is a furnace in the summer.
- n. A severe test or trial: endured the furnace of his friends' blame after the accident.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A structure in which to make and maintain a fire the heat of which is to be used for some mechanical purpose, as the melting of ores or metals, the production of steam as a power, the warming of apartments, the baking of pottery, etc.; specifically, a structure of considerable size built of stone or brick, and usually lined with fire-brick, used for some purpose connected with the operation of smelting metals. Furnaces are constructed in a great variety of ways, according to the different purposes to which they are to be applied. See air-furnace, blast-furnace, and hearth.
- n. Figuratively, a place, time, or occasion of severe torture or great trial.
- To subject to the action of a furnace; figuratively, to heat as if in a furnace.
- To throw out, as flames or dull reverberations of sound are emitted by a furnace.
- To issue forth like flames from a furnace.
- n. A furnace which is continually rotated or revolved to secure thorough mixture or chemical reaction under heat as respects the charge.
Wiktionary
- n. A device for heating.
- n. A device that heats materials being processed in a factory.
- n. A device that provides heat for a building.
- n. Any area that is excessively hot.
- v. To heat in a furnace
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An inclosed place in which heat is produced by the combustion of fuel, as for reducing ores or melting metals, for warming a house, for baking pottery, etc.
- n. A place or time of punishment, affiction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline.
- n. To throw out, or exhale, as from a furnace; also, to put into a furnace.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc.
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French fornais, from Latin fornāx, fornāc-, oven; see gwher- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The woody fibre of the carrots and cabbages is very combustible in the coal furnace, but it is very doubtful if more than 20 or 30 per cent. of this substance is ever burned in the _animal furnace_.”
“The main component of this furnace is a large Fresnel lens.”
“To the right of this furnace is the place of honor; in it guests are received, and at night the men sleep there.”
“A simple hood to capture the volatiles on the induction furnace is all that is required there.”
“What part of a magnetic rake, a front end loader, and a vacuum induction furnace is unproven?”
“Our furnace is on a programmable thermostat, but in the summer we try to use the AC as little as possible.”
“A huge vat of it that we can keep frozen and warm up, you know, on those Friday nights when we get here and its late and cold and the furnace is out or the pipes are frozen.”
“Cold, damp, dreary, rainy … and our furnace is on the blink.”
“(The furnace is on the right; the brown box in the middle is an old Sears wood stove that came with the house.)”
“Standing near an operating blast furnace is like becoming that child again watching a robot monster movie on Saturday afternoon.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘furnace’.
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Metallics
Words that relate to or describe metals.
malleable, ductile, shiny, steely, brassy, dull, golden, precious, smelt, smith, tensile, clink and 39 more...
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Starring
Anything and everything astronomically related.
cosmos, stars, fiery, furnace, blackness, void, expanse, constellation, constitution, comet, meteor, orion
yarb '"Why have you left me, why have you gone away?" She yelled and yelled as it went into the furnace.'
- Peter Reading, C, 1984 Jul 23, 2008