unburn
English
Verb
unburn (third-person singular simple present unburns, present participle unburning, simple past and past participle unburned)
- (intransitive) To undergo the process of burning in reverse.
- 2002, Jim Al-Khalili, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, page 122:
- Similarly, you cannot 'unstir' the sugar from a cup of coffee once it has been dissolved, and you never see a pile of ash in the fireplace 'unburn' to become a log of wood again.
- 2009, Bradley Harris Dowden, The Metaphysics of Time: A Dialogue, page 122:
- In your class last year we learned that increase in entropy is why matches burn but never unburn, why cans rust but never unrust, and why engines are never perfectly efficient.
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