explode

verb

Sayik-SPLOHD/ɪkˈsploʊd/UK/ɪkˈspləʊd/

14 meanings of explode

1
verbintransitive
To burst apart suddenly with a lot of force and noise.
Like a balloon bursting when you push a pin into it.
The firework exploded with a loud bang.
Bombs explode when they hit the ground.
Similardetonate, burst
Oppositeimplode
2
verbtransitive
To destroy something by blowing it up with a bomb or blast.
Engineers exploded the old bridge to make room for a new one.
The crew will explode the rock face to clear the tunnel.
Similarblast, burst, blow
Note
3
verbtransitive
To destroy something quickly and with great force.
The crash exploded the small car against the wall.
One bad decision can explode a whole plan in minutes.
Similarshatter, destroy, wreck, ruin
Note
4
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To suddenly show very strong feelings, especially anger.
Like a pot boiling over when the heat gets too high.
Dad exploded when he saw the broken window.
Fans explode with joy when their team scores.
Similarerupt, snap, rage
Note
5
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To grow very quickly in a short time.
Like popcorn that quickly fills up the whole bowl.
House prices exploded over the last year.
Online sales explode during the holiday season.
Similarsoar, boom, mushroom, surge, skyrocket
Oppositeplummet, plunge, shrink, dwindle
Note
6
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To suddenly appear or come out of nowhere.
Like a jack-in-the-box popping up out of its box.
A new band exploded onto the music scene last spring.
Bright colors explode across the sky at sunset.
Similarburst
Note
7
verbtransitive
To draw or show the separate parts of something spread out.
Like laying out all the pieces of a model kit before you build it.
The manual exploded the engine into its many parts.
Designers often explode a product to show how it fits together.
8
verbintransitive
To keep growing bigger and bigger without any limit.
Like a snowball that keeps getting bigger and never stops.
Near that point, the numbers explode and never settle down.
The error exploded as the calculation went on.
Note
9
verbtransitive
To split a piece of text into smaller parts at each separator.
Like cutting a string of beads at each knot to get single beads.
The script will explode the line into separate words.
These functions explode text wherever they find a comma.
Similarsplit
Oppositejoin, implode
Note
10
verbtransitive
To unpack data that was squeezed down to a smaller size.
Like unfolding a packed tent back to its full shape.
The tool exploded the archive back to its full size.
The program can explode the file in seconds.
Similardecompress, unpack, expand
Oppositecompress, implode
Note

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Latin explodere, meaning to drive an actor off the stage by clapping. Later it came to mean to burst with a loud noise.