A furnace is a container or enclosed space in which a very hot fire is made, for example to melt metal, burn rubbish, or produce steam.
2. singular noun
If you say that a place is afurnace, you mean that it is very hot there.
[informal, emphasis]
How can we walk? It's a furnace out there.
furnace in British English
(ˈfɜːnɪs)
noun
1.
an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to generate steam, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc
2.
a very hot or stifling place
Derived forms
furnace-like (ˈfurnace-ˌlike)
adjective
Word origin
C13: from Old French fornais, from Latin fornax oven, furnace; related to Latin formus warm
furnace in American English
(ˈfɜrnəs)
noun
1.
an enclosed chamber or structure in which heat is produced, as by burning fuel, for warming a building, reducing ores and metals, etc.
2.
any extremely hot place
3.
a grueling test or trial
Word origin
ME furnaise < OFr fornais < L fornax (gen. fornacis), furnace: see warm
furnace in Chemical Engineering
(fɜrnɪs)
Word forms: (regular plural) furnaces
noun
(Chemical Engineering: Energy and sustainability)
A furnace is a vessel in which there is a very high temperature.
The temperature of the furnace was increased at 110°C per hour to the final temperature of 900°C and then held forone hour before the product was allowed to cool to room temperature.
Furnaces heat up raw materials so that they can produce products such as gasoline, kerosene,chemicals, and plastic.
A furnace is a vessel in which there is a very high temperature.
furnace in Mechanical Engineering
(fɜrnɪs)
Word forms: (regular plural) furnaces
noun
(Mechanical engineering: General)
A furnace is an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced, for example to generate steam,burn waste, or produce molten metal.
The aluminum is melted in a furnace at a temperature of 1400 degrees.
The iron ore is melted in huge furnaces.
A furnace is an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced, for example to generate steam,burn waste, or produce molten metal.
Examples of 'furnace' in a sentence
furnace
The backlog is because of a shortage of diesel to fire furnaces.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The model says we should transition from blast furnace to arc furnace.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Generations have worked in that blast furnace and fought so hard.
The Sun (2015)
The forest wound on with no respite from the furnace heat and gradient.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
It is understood that he would want new electric arc furnaces installed as a part of any deal.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The company is investing 300m in an electric arc furnace to allow it to expand production.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
The company is an intensive user of energy, particularly with its electric arc furnaces.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
They stoke the fires of the furnace, and they throw all three of them in.
Christianity Today (2000)
At night, the furnace fires lit the sky with a baleful pink glow.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
If you can take the heat from the furnace, have a go yourself.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
A blast furnace so fierce that a fridge collapses in on itself like a cardboard box.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
A blast furnace at the site was halted after a walkout by workers amid failed pay talks.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Some prized dust is placed inside a furnace and melted, a process that can yield precious drops of molten gold.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Another executive who worked on the deal said Britain must accept its days of making molten steel in blast furnaces are numbered.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I want to make sure we keep the blast furnaces, so the trick now is to save them.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
For example, limestone is used as a flux in the blast furnace to allow the removal of iron from the ore in the presence of heat.
Jilbert, John Geography Basic Facts (1983)
It had four blast furnaces and two coke oven complexes, and over 50 years of its operation a huge quantity of industrial waste was deposited there.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
In other languages
furnace
British English: furnace NOUN
A furnace is a container or enclosed space in which a very hot fire is made.
American English: furnace
Brazilian Portuguese: forno
Chinese: 熔炉
European Spanish: horno
French: fourneau
German: Hochofen
Italian: fornace
Japanese: かまど
Korean: 노
European Portuguese: forno
Latin American Spanish: horno
All related terms of 'furnace'
arc furnace
a furnace in which the charge is heated by an electric arc
gas furnace
a furnace or reactor that distills gas from coal , etc.
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a large structure in which iron ore is heated under pressure so that it melts and the pure iron metal separates out and can be collected .
furnace room
a room containing a furnace or an enclosed chamber for producing heat, often on the bottom floor of the building that it heats
solar furnace
a furnace utilizing the sun as a heat source , sunlight being concentrated at the focus of a system of concave mirrors
combustion furnace
a furnace used in the laboratory to carry out elemental analysis of organic compounds
electric furnace
any furnace in which the heat is provided by an electric current
smelting furnace
an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
reverberatory furnace
a metallurgical furnace having a curved roof that deflects heat onto the charge so that the fuel is not in direct contact with the ore
blast-furnace cement
a type of cement made from a blend of ordinary Portland cement and crushed slag from a blast furnace . It has lower setting properties than ordinary Portland cement
electric-arc furnace
a furnace in which the charge is heated by an electric arc
open-hearth furnace
(esp formerly) a steel-making reverbatory furnace in which pig iron and scrap are contained in a shallow hearth and heated by producer gas