Word: explode Part of Speech: verb 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. Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspləʊd/, /ɪkˈsploʊd/ 1. To fly apart with sudden violent force; to blow up, to burst, to detonate, to go off. Labels: intransitive Example: The bomb explodes. Example: But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater. 2. To destroy with an explosion. Labels: transitive Example: The assassin exploded the car by means of a car bomb. 3. To make a violent or emotional outburst; to suddenly give expression to powerful and often negative or unpleasant emotion, especially anger. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: She exploded when I criticised her hat. Example: Dobbin […] fell back in the crowd, crowing and sputtering until he reached a safe distance, when he exploded amongst the astonished market-people with shrieks of yelling laughter. 4. To increase suddenly. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: When pigeons can come to a spot day in and day out for a guaranteed meal, their populations explode. Example: Despite these products typically costing more, the market for organic food has exploded over the last couple of decades. 5. To increase arbitrarily or boundlessly. Example: The function f(x) = 1/x explodes around x = 0. 6. To destroy violently or abruptly. Labels: transitive Example: They sought to explode the myth. 7. To create an exploded view of. Labels: transitive Example: Explode the assembly drawing so that all the fasteners are visible. 8. To disprove or debunk. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: Astrology is required by many famous physicians […] doubted of, and exploded by others. Example: [W]henever the person who is possessed of [natural goodness] doth what is right, no ravished or friendly spectator is so eager or so loud in his applause: on the contrary, when he doth wrong, no critic is so apt to hiss and explode him. 9. To emerge suddenly. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: to explode into the mainstream; to explode onto the scene Example: In recent years, words and ideas used to describe discrimination against members of historically marginalized and disadvantaged groups have seemingly exploded into the lexicon: systemic inequality, privilege, white supremacy, the patriarchy, etc. 10. To ejaculate. Labels: slang, vulgar 11. To break (a delimited string of text) into several smaller strings by removing the separators. Example: 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. 12. To decompress (data) that was previously imploded. Labels: transitive Example: 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 […] 13. To open all doors and hatches on an automobile. Labels: transitive 14. Of a die, to produce the highest face result and consequently reroll. Labels: intransitive