Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Furnace \Fur"nace\, n. [OE. fornais, forneis, OF. fornaise, F.
   fournaise, from L. fornax; akin to furnus oven, and prob. to
   E. forceps.]
   1. 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.

   Note: Furnaces are classified as wind or air. furnaces when
         the fire is urged only by the natural draught; as blast
         furnaces, when the fire is urged by the injection
         artificially of a forcible current of air; and as
         reverberatory furnaces, when the flame, in passing to
         the chimney, is thrown down by a low arched roof upon
         the materials operated upon.

   2. 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.