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Furnace
A furnace is a device used for high-temperature heating. The name derives from Latin word fornax, which means oven. The heat energy to fuel a furnace may be supplied directly by fuel combustion, by electricity such as the electric arc furnace, or through induction heating in induction furnaces.
In American English and Canadian English usage, the term furnace refers to the household heating systems based upon a central furnace, otherwise known either as a boiler, or a heater in British English. Furnace may also be a synonym for kiln, a device used in the production of ceramics.
In British English, a furnace is an industrial furnace used for many things, such as the extraction of metal from ore (smelting) or in oil refineries and other chemical plants, for example as the heat source for fractional distillation columns. The term furnace can also refer to a direct fired heater, used in boiler applications in chemical industries or for providing heat to chemical reactions for processes like cracking, and is part of the standard English names for many metallurgical furnaces worldwide.
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Furnace (noun)
An industrial heating device, e.g. for smelting metal or baking ceramics.
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Furnace (noun)
A device that provides heat for a building; a space heater.
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Furnace (noun)
Any area that is excessively hot.
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Furnace (noun)
A place or time of punishment, affliction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline.
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Furnace (verb)
To heat in a furnace.
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Furnace (verb)
To exhale like a furnace.
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Heater (noun)
A device that produces and radiates heat, typically to raise the temperature of a room or building.
“Turn on the heater; I’m cold.”
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Heater (noun)
A person who heats something, for example in metalworking.
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Heater (noun)
A gun.
“The thug pumped two rounds from his heater into her.”
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Heater (noun)
A fastball, especially one thrown at high velocity.
“Jones threw a heater under his chin.”
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Heater (noun)
An extended winning streak.
“Emmy went on a heater in Las Vegas and came back six thousand dollars richer.”
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Heater (noun)
A medieval European shield having a rounded triangle shape like a clothes iron.