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Explode

//ɪkˈsploʊd// verb, slang

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To fly apart with sudden violent force; to blow up, to burst, to detonate, to go off. intransitive

    "The bomb explodes."

  2. 2
    increase rapidly and in an uncontrolled manner wordnet
  3. 3
    To destroy with an explosion. transitive

    "The assassin exploded the car by means of a car bomb."

  4. 4
    burst outward, usually with noise wordnet
  5. 5
    To make a violent or emotional outburst; to suddenly give expression to powerful and often negative or unpleasant emotion, especially anger. figuratively, intransitive

    "She exploded when I criticised her hat."

Show 19 more definitions
  1. 6
    burst and release energy as through a violent chemical or physical reaction wordnet
  2. 7
    To increase suddenly. figuratively, intransitive

    "When pigeons can come to a spot day in and day out for a guaranteed meal, their populations explode."

  3. 8
    be unleashed; emerge with violence or noise wordnet
  4. 9
    To increase arbitrarily or boundlessly.

    "The function f(x) = 1/x explodes around x = 0."

  5. 10
    cause to burst with a violent release of energy wordnet
  6. 11
    To destroy violently or abruptly. transitive

    "They sought to explode the myth."

  7. 12
    show (a theory or claim) to be baseless, or refute and make obsolete wordnet
  8. 13
    To create an exploded view of. transitive

    "Explode the assembly drawing so that all the fasteners are visible."

  9. 14
    show a violent emotional reaction wordnet
  10. 15
    To disprove or debunk. archaic, transitive

    "Astrology is required by many famous physicians […] doubted of, and exploded by others."

  11. 16
    drive from the stage by noisy disapproval wordnet
  12. 17
    To emerge suddenly. figuratively, intransitive

    "to explode into the mainstream; to explode onto the scene"

  13. 18
    cause to burst as a result of air pressure; of stop consonants like /p/, /t/, and /k/ wordnet
  14. 19
    To ejaculate. slang, vulgar
  15. 20
    destroy by exploding wordnet
  16. 21
    To break (a delimited string of text) into several smaller strings by removing the separators.

    "The third check uses the exploded data stored in the array $parts and the function checkdate() to test if the date is a valid calendar date."

  17. 22
    To decompress (data) that was previously imploded. transitive

    "I'm looking for some code that will implode data using the PKZIP method.. and explode it. PKWare sells an object that you can link with that does the job, and we have licensed this, but we are now writing 32 bit code for MS-DOS and the PKWare stuff won't work […]"

  18. 23
    To open all doors and hatches on an automobile. transitive
  19. 24
    Of a die, to produce the highest face result and consequently reroll. intransitive

Etymology

First recorded around 1538, from the Latin verb explōdere (“drive out or off by clapping”). The meaning was originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence meaning to "to drive out" or "to reject". From ex- (“out”) + plaudere (“to clap; to applaud”). In English it used to mean to "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (from around 1660), and later meaning to "go off with a loud noise" (from around 1790). The sense of "bursting with destructive force" is first recorded around 1882.

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