Slow-burning

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Which burns more slowly than comparable objects.
  2. 2
    Made of material designed to resist fire.
  3. 3
    Emerging or unfolding slowly or gradually. idiomatic

    "There are elements of low-key black comedy in our hapless hero’s dealing with clinic superiors, who are so clueless that their suspicions fall on entirely the wrong person. As a thriller, however, “La Dosis” is slow-burning to a fault, never quite arriving at the boil anticipated."

Synonyms

All synonyms
slow-burn

Example

More examples

"A chandelier shaped like a basketball net, by American artist David Hammons, a slow-burning wax replica of a 16th century sculpture aimed to melt completely in six months, the works of Chinese-born painter Xinyi Cheng and British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye — the Pinault Collection is an eclectic mix of contemporary art."

Etymology

From slow + burning.

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