烧 (shāo) is a versatile verb meaning 'to burn' or 'to cook/heat' — it covers burning fuel, boiling water, and cooking by direct flame or high heat. For cooking methods, 烤 (kǎo) is specifically 'to roast/broil' (dry heat), 煮 (zhǔ) is 'to boil' in liquid, and 炖 (dùn) is 'to stew' slowly. As a noun, 烧 means 'fever', but when used as a verb for fever it's always paired with 发 (fā) as in 发烧 (fā shāo) — 烧 alone cannot mean 'to have a fever'.