Furnace

//ˈfɝnɪs// name, noun, verb, slang

name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An industrial heating device, such as for smelting metal or firing ceramics.

    "Plans for the next phase include furnaces capable of inert atmospheres and partial vacuums."

  2. 2
    an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc. wordnet
  3. 3
    A device that provides heat for a building. Canada, US

    "HVAC services include furnace maintenance."

  4. 4
    Any area that is excessively hot. colloquial, figuratively

    "The busy kitchen became a sweltering furnace."

  5. 5
    A place or time of punishment, affliction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline. figuratively

    "forged in the furnace of fierce competition"

Verb
  1. 1
    To heat in a furnace.
  2. 2
    To exhale like a furnace.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname, variant of Furness.

Synonyms

All synonyms
acid kilnatomic pileblacksmith shopblast furnacebloomeryboiler

Example

More examples

"What do you need a 2000°C furnace for?"

Etymology

From Middle English forneys, from Old French fornais (French fournaise), from Latin fornāx.

Related phrases

Furnace CreekMannheim furnaceRockhill FurnaceStetefeldt furnacedoré furnacesmoke like a furnacethere may be snow on the rooftop but there is fire in the furnacebig firebodies burningboiler heatercoal flamesheat generator

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