explode
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
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.
Inflected forms:
form: explodes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: exploding
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: explodest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: explodedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: explodes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: explodeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: explode
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: exploding
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: exploded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: asplode
pos: verb
tags: alternative
nonstandard
form: esplode
pos: verb
tags: alternative
nonstandard
Senses:
gloss: To fly apart with sudden violent force; to blow up, to burst, to detonate, to go off.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The bomb explodes.
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.
gloss: To destroy with an explosion.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The assassin exploded the car by means of a car bomb.
gloss: To make a violent or emotional outburst; to suddenly give expression to powerful and often negative or unpleasant emotion, especially anger.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: She exploded when I criticised her hat.
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.
“Nonsense!” Jack exploded at me. “Why Miss Bertram here knocked that theory into a cocked hat coming over on the train.”
gloss: To increase suddenly.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: When pigeons can come to a spot day in and day out for a guaranteed meal, their populations explode.
Despite these products typically costing more, the market for organic food has exploded over the last couple of decades.
gloss: To increase arbitrarily or boundlessly.
pos: verb
examples: The function f(x) = 1/x explodes around x = 0.
gloss: To destroy violently or abruptly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They sought to explode the myth.
gloss: To create an exploded view of.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Explode the assembly drawing so that all the fasteners are visible.
gloss: To disprove or debunk.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: Astrology is required by many famous physicians […] doubted of, and exploded by others.
[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.
Another instance of the like nature is, that the old opinion, that Turks and infidels are perpetually to be considered as alien enemies, has been long exploded.
gloss: To emerge suddenly.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: to explode into the mainstream; to explode onto the scene
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.
A.I. text-to-image generators such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and DALL-E exploded onto the scene this year and in mere months have become widely used to create all sorts of images, ranging from digital art pieces to character designs.
gloss: To ejaculate.
pos: verb
tags: slang
vulgar
gloss: To break (a delimited string of text) into several smaller strings by removing the separators.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To decompress (data) that was previously imploded.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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 […]
gloss: To open all doors and hatches on an automobile.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Of a die, to produce the highest face result and consequently reroll.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
Synonyms: asplode
blast
blow
blow up
burst
detonate
displode
dynamite
explode
fulminate
go off
let off
nuke
rive
set off
Antonyms: implode
Related words: explosion
explosive
implode
implosive
applaud
Derived words: explodability
explodable
exploded
exploder
explodey
exploding
exploding cucumber
exploding head syndrome
explodium
kerplode
kersplode
unexplode
Translations: