- 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 heated4 technical if a rock or metal fuses or you fuse it, it becomes liquid by being heated: Lead fuses at quite a low temperature.
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. 2004.