Outburst

//ˈaʊtˌbɝst// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sudden, often violent expression of emotion or activity.

    "The man greeted us with an outburst of invective."

  2. 2
    a sudden violent disturbance wordnet
  3. 3
    an unrestrained expression of emotion wordnet
  4. 4
    a sudden intense happening wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To burst out. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
effusionexplosionflare upaccessattackbarrage

Example

More examples

"Ursula's outburst was rather unbusinesslike."

Etymology

From Middle English outbersten, outbresten. Cognate with Dutch uitbarsten (“to erupt; burst out”), German ausbersten (“to burst out; erupt”). By surface analysis, out- + burst.

Related phrases

super outbreaktornado outbreakburst out

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.