fuse

1 noun (C)

1 a short thin piece of wire that is inside electrical equipment and prevents damage by melting and stopping the electricity when there is too much power: two 13 amp fuses | blow a fuse (=make it melt by putting too much electricity through it)

2 also fuze AmE a thing that delays a bomb, firework etc from exploding until you are a safe distance away or makes it explode at a particular time: The fuse was set to go off at 6 p.m.

3 a short fuse if someone has a short fuse, they get angry very easily

—see also: blow a fuse blow 1 (23) 2 verb (I, T)

1 to join together, or to make something join together, to become a single thing

(+ together): The egg and sperm fuse together as one cell.

2 BrE if an electrical system or electrical equipment fuses or you fuse them, it stops working because a fuse has melted: The lights have fused again.

3 if metals, rocks etc fuse or you fuse them, they become joined together by being heated

4 technical if a rock or metal fuses or you fuse it, it becomes liquid by being heated: Lead fuses at quite a low temperature.