burn down

burn down (third-person singular simple present burns down, present participle burning down, simple past and past participle burned down or burnt down)

1. (transitive) To cause (a structure) to burn to nothing.

   The police are hoping to find the people who burned down the cottage.

2. (intransitive, of a structure) To burn completely, so that nothing remains.

   A fire which started in the bedroom caused the cottage to burn down.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 79:

     The first Earl's Court station (1871) was a wooden hut in the middle of a market garden. It served a District connection between West Brompton and the West London Line. It managed to burn down in 1875, and the Earl's Court of today dates from 1878.

• burndown (noun)