fuse

noun

part of a device that initiates function in an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition
type of low resistance resistor that acts as a sacrificial device to provide overcurrent protection, of either the load or source circuit

Pronunciation: /fjuːz/

Etymology: Back-formation from fusion (“to melt”), first to verbal sense, then noun.

A device to prevent excessive overcurrent from overload or short circuit in an electrical circuit, containing a component that melts and interrupts the current when too high a load is passed through it.

Etymology: Back-formation from fusion (“to melt”), first to verbal sense, then noun.

To liquify by heat; melt.
“Pure sodium is a lustrous metal... it fuses very easily at a temperature of 97°, and distils at a bright red heat (742°...)”
To melt together; to blend; to mix indistinguishably.
“That each, who seems a separate whole, Should move his rounds, and fusing all The skirts of self again, should fall Remerging in the general Soul, Is faith as vague as all unsweet: […]”
“All these were based broadly on the management framework of the old companies, except that the former Southern and North Eastern Areas of the old L.N.E.R. became separate management units, while the former L.M.S.R. and L.N.E.R. lines north of the Border were fused into a self-contained Scottish Region.”
To melt together.
To combine through nuclear fusion.
To furnish with or install a fuse in (a circuit) to protect against overcurrent.
To stop operating, having been protected against overcurrent by its fuse blowing.
“When the bath overflowed, the downstairs lights fused, so we need a torch.”
To form a bicyclic compound from two similar or different types of ring such that two or more atoms are shared between the resulting rings.