Explode

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspləʊd/

Definitions

1. To burst outward suddenly and violently with great force, often accompanied by loud noise and the scattering of fragments
2. To break apart suddenly and forcefully, resulting in the release of energy and sound while scattering debris in all directions
3. To suddenly and violently release energy, causing a loud sound and the dispersion of fragments in a wide area

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "explode" is that its first English sense had nothing to do with bombs. Around 1538 it came into English from the Latin "explodere," meaning to drive out or off by clapping, and it was a theatre term: audiences could hiss or clap an unpopular actor off the stage. The word was built from "ex-" meaning "out" and "plaudere," meaning "to clap or applaud," so its literal sense was a crowd's noisy rejection. From there the word drifted. By the 1660s it meant to drive something out with violence and sudden noise, and by the 1790s it could describe something going off with a loud report. The sense of bursting apart with destructive force only appears around 1882, when explosives were becoming a common part of industrial and military life. The clapping that once expelled an actor had become the blast that expels everything around it.

Synonyms: burst, detonate, shatter, erupt, blow up

Antonyms: implode, collapse, deflate, diminish, decrease