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barnburner

barn·bur·ner

uncommon slang us

noun

1.

someone who burns down a barn

2.

a impressively successful event

  • “the rock concert was a real barnburner”

Origin

From barn + burner. In exaggerated use, from the hyperbolic idea of someone burning down a barn to end a rat infestation.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.