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View synonyms for slow burn

slow burn

noun

, Informal.
  1. a gradual building up of anger, as opposed to an immediate outburst:

    I did a slow burn as the conversation progressed.



slow burn

noun

  1. a steadily penetrating show of anger or contempt
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Idioms and Phrases

Slowly increasing anger. It is often put as do a slow burn , meaning “gradually grow angrier,” as in I did a slow burn when he kept me waiting for three hours . The burn in this idiom comes from burn up in the sense of “make furious.” The term was first cited in 1938 and was closely associated with comedian Edgar Kennedy.
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Example Sentences

The “signature sauce” was basically mayo, and the heat level of the other — a russet-toned condiment meant to impart spice to the patty — registered as a slow burn, but was no match for Popeyes’ famous kick.

It’s a delicious slow burn friends-to-lovers romance full of witty banter and just the perfect amount of steam.

These are a slow burn, accruing 10 to 20 miles per survey and requiring you to take qualifying questions to determine if you are in the target audience.

Instead, the story goes, there was a slow burn—until the early 1700s, at which point Newton’s corrected and improved later editions, along with a growing interest among scientists, began to finally have an impact.

The wider adoption of AI across industries has been a bit of a slow burn over the past several years as company founders and executives begin to understand what the technology could do for their businesses.

But the real drama would develop during long slow burn that came next.

Alex Edwards, Founder of Natural High, agrees with this slow-burn philosophy.

The Americans has given us both a chilly pleasure and a slow burn in the proximity of its antagonists.

Quincy described his show as a “slow burn” with a “nice, melancholy sweetness to it like Charlie Brown.”

There are “not a lot of Rwandas, but a lot of slow-burn horrific conflicts,” she said.

The blows were weak, for I was still dazed; but they served, together with the slow burn of my anger, greatly to steady me.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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slowSlow but steady wins the race