incinerate Look up incinerate at Dictionary.com
1555, from M.L. incineratus "reduce to ashes," pp. of incinerare, from L. in- "into" + cinis (gen. cineris) "ashes." Incinerator first recorded 1883, originally in the Amer.Eng. terminology of cremation; meaning "device for waste disposal by burning" is from 1889.