FURNACE

furnace

(noun) an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc.

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

furnace (plural furnaces)

(UK) An industrial heating device, e.g. for smelting metal or baking ceramics.

(US, Canada) A device that provides heat for a building; a space heater.

(colloquial) Any area that is excessively hot.

(figurative) A place or time of punishment, affliction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline.

Verb

furnace (third-person singular simple present furnaces, present participle furnacing, simple past and past participle furnaced)

To heat in a furnace.

To exhale like a furnace.

Anagrams

• Fraunce

Source: Wiktionary


Fur"nace, n. Etym: [OE. fornais, forneis, OF. fornaise, F. fournaise, from L. fornax; akin to furnus oven, and prob. to E. forceps.]

1. 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.; as, an iron furnace; a hot-air furnace; a glass furnace; a boiler furnace, etc.

Note: Furnaces are classified as wind or air. furnaces when the fire is urged only by the natural draught; as blast furnaces, when the fire is urged by the injection artificially of a forcible current of air; and as reverberatory furnaces, when the flame, in passing to the chimney, is thrown down by a low arched roof upon the materials operated upon.

2. A place or time of punishment, affiction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline. Deut. iv. 20. Bustamente furnace, a shaft furnace for roasting quicksilver ores.

– Furnace bridge, Same as Bridge wall. See Bridge, n., 5.

– Furnace cadmiam or cadmia, the oxide of zinc which accumulates in the chimneys of furnaces smelting zinciferous ores. Raymond.

– Furnace hoist (Iron Manuf.), a lift for raising ore, coal, etc., to the mouth of a blast furnace.

Fur"nace, n.

1. To throw out, or exhale, as from a furnace; also, to put into a furnace. [Obs. or R.] He furnaces The thick sighe from him. Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

26 March 2025

CAST

(noun) bandage consisting of a firm covering (often made of plaster of Paris) that immobilizes broken bones while they heal


coffee icon

Coffee Trivia

Contrary to popular belief, coffee beans are not technically beans. They are referred to as such because of their resemblance to legumes. A coffee bean is a seed of the Coffea plant and the source for coffee. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit, often referred to as a cherry. Just like ordinary cherries, the coffee fruit is also a so-called stone fruit.

coffee icon