burn up v.
1. to criticize severely.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Fables in Sl. (1902) 160: The way he burned up Magazine Writers, it’s a Wonder they didn’t get after him for Arson. | |
| Knocking the Neighbors 188: Albert was burning up the Local Aristocracy. |
2. to annoy, to irritate, to aggravate; to get a person ‘hot under the collar’; thus as n. an annoyance.
| Wise-crack Dict. 5/1: Burn him up – Arouse his anger. | |
| On Broadway 10 July [synd. col.] Among other burn ups last week was a telegram received by Al Jolson [...] the wire aggravated him no little. | |
| ‘Social Error’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 451: Miss Midgie Muldoon [...] looks right past Handsome Jack Maddigan, which burns Jack up all the more. | |
| G.I. Laughs 118: [cartoon] Ah, me! Wotta life—our sergeant burns me up. | |
| Cast the First Stone 165: It burns them up not to be lords and masters in their own beds. | |
| (con. 1940s) Autobiog. (1968) 129: Burns them white folks up when you get youself something. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Picture Palace 325: Yet it burned me up to think that they had come here to see each other and were not paying the blindest bit of attention to my pictures. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 653: You know what burned me up? You were right. That was what burned me up. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 241: That burned me up. | |
| Scholar 121: He jus’ burns me up. |
3. to cut a swathe through.
| Bystander (Des Moines, IA) 27 Sept. 4/2: [He] subsequently ‘burned’ the money up — bucking the tiger’. | |
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 211: We had just burnt up Little Rock on that eighty-five dollars of mine. | |
| Pitching in a Pitch 6: ‘So that is the guy who has been burning up this League, huh?’. | |
| Hand-made Fables 31: All the other Trotters ducked to the Side-Lines and watched him burn up the Floor. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 150: He burned up Rio while he was there. | |
| Put on the Spot 39: He’s hot for the front-page copy. I could burn him up with it. | |
| An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 57: We have burned up headlines often before but this is the biggest front-page sensation of all. | |
| Rock 94: There’s thirteen dollars in my pocket and we burned it all up on the rides. | |
| Scene (1996) 227: These girls have been burning the business section up for the past month. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 1: I really burned up that food. | |
| (con. WWII) Hollywoodland (1981) 195: The Hollywood Stars were burning up [...] The crowd was hysterical with the scent of blood. | |
| Brotherhood of Corruption 79: Pearl Jam had just released a new album that was burning up the charts. |
4. to excite.
| Hobo 61: They are burning up to learn something on their own hook; and they’ll learn it, too. | |
| Awopbop. (1970) 52: We also fall in love and that really burns us up. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
5. to outdo, to surpass.
| Sex (1997) I i: Won’t I burn up the janes when I wear this! | |
| ‘Hurry Kane’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 94: Then Dave soft-soaped him, told him how he’d burn up the league. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 218: You know I got some Jap Zeros do very well, / but Uncle Sam got some P-38s burn up old hell. |
6. to become annoyed, furious, esp. underpinned by embarrassment.
| Broadway Melody 45: A whole page! And in the medium where all the performers would read and realise—and burn up. | |
| Gas-House McGinty 354: Jake Schaeffer, he yells ... I smell manure somewhere. Cunningham burns up. | |
 | ‘The Whirling Hub’ in Afro-American 8 June 18/2: Simmie Roberts and Cellus Stokes burned up at made protests. | |
| Quick Brown Fox 212: ‘You’re burning up because he married Alison’. | |
| et al. DAUL 37/1: Burn up. 1. To become enraged. | |
| Teen-Age Mafia 70: He was burning up, ready to blow a fuse. | |
| in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 124: Meanwhile, Angie is burning up about the way Jerry’s gawking at that near-nekkid hoofer lady. | |
| Awaydays 65: Elvis simply isn’t there, hasn’t spoken, doesn’t exist. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Elvis burn up. |
7. (US tramp) to betray one’s partner to the police.
| Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 43: Burn Up: To ‘frame up’ another, since the victim is said to be ‘burned up’ when he grows ‘hot under the collar’ at the treatment received. |
8. to be under intense police pressure.
| Prison Community (1940) 332/2: A town or reso may have so much ‘heat’ directed up it that it is described as ‘burning up’. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 267: Man, you’re burning up. You shouldn’t be here. |
9. to draw attention to.
| Dopefiend (1991) 37: He didn’t want any dopefiends burning up his house. |
10. see burn v. (2a)
11. see burn v. (5d)
12. see burn out v. (2)