An inclosed place in which heat is produced by the combustion of fuel, as for reducing ores or melting metals, for warming a house, for baking pottery, etc.; as, an iron furnace; a hot-air furnace; a glass furnace; a boiler furnace, etc.
A place or time of punishment, affiction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline. Deut. iv. 20. Bustamente furnace, a shaft furnace for roasting quicksilver ores. -- Furnace bridge, Same as Bridge wall. See Bridge, n., 5. -- Furnace cadmiam or cadmia, the oxide of zinc which accumulates in the chimneys of furnaces smelting zinciferous ores. Raymond. -- Furnace hoist (Iron Manuf.), a lift for raising ore, coal, etc., to the mouth of a blast furnace.
To throw out, or exhale, as from a furnace; also, to put into a furnace. [Obs. or R.] He furnaces The thick sighe from him. Shak.
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