bursting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of burst.

   The river was bursting its banks after three days of heavy rain.

   Fireworks were bursting overhead as the crowd cheered.

   Note

   Burst barely changes. Its base, past tense and past participle share one spelling, so the -ing form is the only inflection that adds anything. It works both with and without an object: a river bursting its banks, fireworks bursting overhead. It also describes a sudden entrance or exit, as in someone bursting into the room. As a gerund it shades into the noun for the event.

2. 2
   adjective

   So full of something that it is on the point of breaking open or overflowing.

   Like a dam holding back far more water than it was built for.

   The suitcase was bursting with souvenirs by the end of the trip.

   Warehouses across the city were bursting with unsold inventory.

   Similarstuffed, packed, brimming, teeming

   Oppositeempty

   Note

   The image behind the other adjective senses is a container so full it is about to split. It usually takes with, as in a refrigerator bursting with vegetables or a heart bursting with emotion, and it moves easily from things to feelings. Eagerness and the urgent need for a toilet are the same pressure felt from inside, and in those senses nothing follows with.

3. 3
   adjective

   Extremely eager and impatient to do something, barely able to hold back.

   Like a runner straining at the starting line before the gun goes off.

   The new recruits were bursting to prove themselves on their first assignment.

   He was bursting to tell the whole office about his promotion.

   Similareager, dying, raring, impatient, keen

   Oppositereluctant, unwilling, loath

4. 4
   adjective

   Feeling an urgent and uncomfortable need to urinate.

   After three cups of coffee, he was absolutely bursting by the time the meeting ended.

   The children were bursting before we even found a rest stop.

   Similardesperate

   Note

   Here the pressure is bodily, and the word often stands alone after a verb: "I'm bursting." When it takes a complement, it is usually to go or to go to the toilet. That is the same infinitive frame as the "eager" meaning, so context decides. A child bursting to go may be desperate for the bathroom or simply impatient to leave.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The action or event of something breaking open or apart suddenly.

   Like the snap of an overstretched rubber band.

   The bursting of the dam sent water surging through the valley.

   A loud bursting of fireworks marked the start of the festival.

   Similarrupture, explosion, breach, popping

   Note

   A noun at home in reports of things giving way under pressure. Railway Magazine used it in 1946 for the banks of the Shropshire Union Canal and in 1953 for the dykes of Holland. It usually comes in the frame the bursting of plus whatever failed. It can also be counted, as in the burstings of balloons, when the events are many and small.

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