FURNACE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Furnace

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/fˈərnəs/ Listen

noun

Furnace n.

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. 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.

A place or time of punishment, affiction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline.

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.

Furnace hoist (Iron Manuf.), a lift for raising ore, coal, etc., to the mouth of a blast furnace.

Furnace n.

To throw out, or exhale, as from a furnace; also, to put into a furnace. (Obs. or R.) "He furnaces The thick sighs from him."

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Etymology of 'Furnace'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Furnace" Quotes from Famous Books

... before them, and an earthenware jar, glazed by some peculiar local process, tightly fitted over it, and packed with clay and sods. A fire was speedily built of pine boughs continually brought from a wooded ravine below, and in a few moments the furnace was in full blast. Mr. Wiles did not participate in these active preparations, except to give occasional directions between his teeth, which were contemplatively fixed over a clay pipe as he lay comfortably on his back on the ground. Whatever enjoyment the rascal may have had ...

— The Story of a Mine • Bret Harte

... young hearts, my children. We shall go down as God's three servants went Into the fiery furnace. Not again Shall the flames spare the true-believers' flesh. The anguish shall be fierce and strong, yet brief. Our spirits shall not know the touch of pain, Pure as refined gold they shall issue safe From the hot crucible; a pleasing sight Unto ...

— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. II. (of II.), Jewish Poems: Translations • Emma Lazarus

... gold from the furnace—thou hast kept the faith, and holden fast thy profession," said the divine, with a glance of triumph. Marian held out her hand to the Prince, who grasped it with fervour. She seemed more like to some holy and heavenward ...

— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby

... was a word continually on his lips; what Alice said and thought and did was evidently perfection. Before the Gregorys had been ten minutes in the house on their first visit he had gone downstairs to inspect the furnace, wound and set a stopped clock, answered the telephone twice, and fondly carried upstairs a refractory four-year-old girl, who came boldly down in her nightgown, with reproaches and requests. On his return from this trip he brought down the one- year-old ...

— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris

... huge factory, the black smoke from which added to the gloom of the scene that lay before him. Through the windows of the factory, dimly seen, workers ran here and there, appearing and disappearing, the glare of the furnace fire lighting now one, now another of them, sharply. At his feet the tumbling waters that rolled and pitched over a little dam fascinated him. Looking closely at the racing waters his head, light from physical weariness, reeled, and in fear of falling he had been compelled to grip firmly ...

— Windy McPherson's Son • Sherwood Anderson

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