furnace

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
furnace
    n 1: an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat
         buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc.
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Furnace \Fur"nace\, n.
   1. To throw out, or exhale, as from a furnace; also, to put
      into a furnace. [Obs. or R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            He furnaces
            The thick sighs from him.             --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Furnace \Fur"nace\, n. [OE. fornais, forneis, OF. fornaise, F.
   fournaise, from L. fornax; akin to furnus oven, and prob. to
   E. forceps.]
   1. An inclosed place in which heat is produced by the
      combustion of fuel, as for reducing ores or melting
      metals, for warming a house, for baking pottery, etc.; as,
      an iron furnace; a hot-air furnace; a glass furnace; a
      boiler furnace, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Furnaces are classified as wind or air. furnaces when
         the fire is urged only by the natural draught; as blast
         furnaces, when the fire is urged by the injection
         artificially of a forcible current of air; and as
         reverberatory furnaces, when the flame, in passing to
         the chimney, is thrown down by a low arched roof upon
         the materials operated upon.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. A place or time of punishment, affiction, or great trial;
      severe experience or discipline. --Deut. iv. 20.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Bustamente furnace}, a shaft furnace for roasting
      quicksilver ores.

   {Furnace bridge}, Same as {Bridge wall}. See {Bridge}, n., 5.
      

   {Furnace cadmiam} or {Furnace cadmia}, the oxide of zinc
      which accumulates in the chimneys of furnaces smelting
      zinciferous ores. --Raymond.

   {Furnace hoist} (Iron Manuf.), a lift for raising ore, coal,
      etc., to the mouth of a blast furnace.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Hydrocarbon \Hy`dro*car"bon\, n. [Hydro-, 2 + carbon.] (Chem.)
   A compound containing only hydrogen and carbon, as methane,
   benzene, etc.; also, by extension, any of their derivatives.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Hydrocarbon burner}, {furnace}, {stove}, a burner, furnace,
      or stove with which liquid fuel, as petroleum, is used.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Furnace
(1.) Chald. attun, a large furnace with a wide open mouth, at
the top of which materials were cast in (Dan. 3:22, 23; comp.
Jer. 29:22). This furnace would be in constant requisition, for
the Babylonians disposed of their dead by cremation, as did also
the Accadians who invaded Mesopotamia.

  (2.) Heb. kibshan, a smelting furnace (Gen. 19:28), also a
lime-kiln (Isa. 33:12; Amos 2:1).

  (3.) Heb. kur, a refining furnace (Prov. 17:3; 27:21; Ezek.
22:18).

  (4.) Heb. alil, a crucible; only used in Ps. 12:6.

  (5.) Heb. tannur, oven for baking bread (Gen. 15:17; Isa.
31:9; Neh. 3:11). It was a large pot, narrowing towards the top.
When it was heated by a fire made within, the dough was spread
over the heated surface, and thus was baked. "A smoking furnace
and a burning lamp" (Gen. 15:17), the symbol of the presence of
the Almighty, passed between the divided pieces of Abraham's
sacrifice in ratification of the covenant God made with him.
(See {OVEN}.)

  (6.) Gr. kamnos, a furnace, kiln, or oven (Matt. 13:42, 50;
Rev. 1:15; 9:2).
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
82 Moby Thesaurus words for "furnace":
      Seger cone, Torrid Zone, acid kiln, atomic pile, blacksmith shop,
      blast furnace, bloomery, boiler, bottle-gas stove, breeder reactor,
      brickkiln, bricks, burner, butane stove, calefactor, caliduct,
      cement kiln, chain reactor, chain-reacting pile, coal furnace,
      coal stove, cook stove, cooker, cookery, element, enamel kiln,
      equator, fast pile, forge, foundry, gas jet, gas stove, heater,
      heating duct, hell, heterogeneous reactor, homogeneous reactor,
      inferno, intermediate pile, jet, kiln, kitchener, lattice,
      limekiln, metalworks, muffle kiln, neutron factory,
      nuclear furnace, oven, pile, pilot light, plutonium reactor,
      power reactor, power-breeder reactor, pyrometer, pyrometric cone,
      radioactive waste, range, reactor, reactor pile, reverberatory,
      reverberatory kiln, rods, salamander, salamander stove, slow pile,
      smelter, smithery, smithy, steam bath, steam pipe, steel mill,
      steelworks, stellarator, stithy, stove, subtropics, tewel, tropics,
      tuyere, uranium reactor, warmer

    

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