burst

Formsbursts, bursting, burst

Pluralbursts

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To break open suddenly from pressure building up inside.

   Overinflated tires can burst on a hot highway.

   The dam burst after weeks of heavy rain.

   Similarpop, rupture, explode, split, blow

   Note

   The core sense, and the oldest: Old English berstan goes back to an Indo-European root meaning "to burst, break, crack, split." Its past tense and past participle are both plain burst: the balloon burst, the pipe has burst. Bursted is nonstandard and best avoided. Brast is an archaic past that turns up only in old texts.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To make something break open by pressure pushing out from inside.

   Too much air pressure can burst a sealed container.

   The frost burst the water main overnight.

   Similarrupture, split, crack, break

   Note

   The causative partner of the intransitive "break open": here one thing does the bursting to another, as when too much breath bursts a balloon. The past tense and past participle are both plain burst (I burst the balloon yesterday; I have burst it), so the past is easy to miss. Bursted does turn up but is nonstandard. Brast survives only as an archaic past.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An occurrence of something breaking open from pressure.

   The burst of the dam released millions of gallons.

   Engineers traced the flood to a single pipe burst.

   Similarrupture, breach, break, blowout

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A sudden, often intense, expression or display of something.

   A burst of applause greeted the winning goal.

   The composer wrote the finale in a single burst of inspiration.

   Similarspurt

   Note

   The noun for anything that comes in a sudden rush, like Biddy's burst of happiness in Dickens's Great Expectations. Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron has a woman who can think only "in short bursts." Railway writing even gives an engine a burst of speed. Spurt is the close synonym. The usual frames are a burst of plus a feeling or activity, and in bursts for something done in intervals.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To enter or leave a place suddenly and unexpectedly.

   Reporters burst into the hall before the announcement ended.

   He will burst through those doors the moment he hears the news.

   Similarbarge, rush, storm, charge, crash

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To erupt or change state suddenly, as if breaking open.

   The crowd burst into song as the band started.

   Old wiring like this can burst into flame without warning.

   Similarbreak, erupt, explode

   Note

   A sudden change of state, usually built as burst into plus a noun: burst into bloom, into tears, into song, into flame. Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1963) has a visitor bursting into tears. Don't confuse it with bursting into a room. There, into names a place you enter; here, it names the state you change into.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To shatter something or interrupt it suddenly in a violent or explosive way.

   A sudden explosion burst the stillness of the morning.

   Such force can burst even reinforced glass.

   Similarshatter, break, pierce, smash, rupture

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To produce something, such as an opening, as the result of bursting.

   The torpedo burst a jagged hole below the waterline.

   Floodwater can burst a breach in even a strong levee.

   Similarblast, tear, rip, blow, punch

   Note

   The object here is what the bursting creates, not what breaks: you burst a hole through a wall, and the hole did not exist before. A close relative is burst open. In Eleanor Marx-Aveling's translation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, a man bursts open a door with his shoulder. The door is the object, and open names the result.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   The bursting apart of a bomb, shell, or missile when it detonates.

   The burst of the artillery shell scattered shrapnel across the field.

   Observers timed each burst to estimate the enemy's range.

   Similarexplosion, blast, detonation

   Note

   In military usage a burst is often named by where it happens: a ground burst, a surface burst. The modifier places the explosion, so the term records position rather than just force. In everyday English, the general act of bursting covers bombs too. Compounds like these are what mark the military register.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A series of shots fired in quick succession from an automatic firearm.

    The gunner loosed a burst toward the tree line.

    Each burst emptied several rounds in under a second.

    Similarvolley, salvo, spray, fusillade

11. 11
    verbtransitive

    To separate continuous printer paper into sheets along the perforation lines.

    The operator burst the printout into individual invoices.

    Modern machines fold, trim, and burst forms in one pass.

    Similarseparate, split

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