noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A sensationally exciting or successful event or person. idiomatic

   "Those deathless twin barnburners return to the Metropolitan Opera tonight."

2. 2
   A member of the radical section of the Democratic party in New York, around the middle of the 19th century, which was hostile to extension of slavery, public debts, corporate privileges, etc., and supported Van Buren against Cass for president in 1848. US, historical, slang
3. 3
   an impressively successful event wordnet
4. 4
   A strike-anywhere match. New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, slang
5. 5
   someone who burns down a barn wordnet

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   One who burns down a barn.

Synonyms

All synonyms

lucifer

Antonyms

All antonyms

Hunkersafety match

Example

More examples

"Those deathless twin barnburners return to the Metropolitan Opera tonight."

Etymology

From barn + burner, from the idea of burning down a barn to get rid of a rat infestation.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.