explode
verb
[ ɪkˈspləʊd ]
• burst or shatter violently and noisily as a result of rapid combustion, excessive internal pressure, or other process.
• "an ammunition lorry exploded with a roar"
Similar:
blow up,
detonate,
blow,
burst (apart),
fly apart,
fly into pieces,
shatter,
go off,
erupt,
bang,
crack,
boom,
go bang,
fulminate,
set off,
let off,
discharge,
touch off,
trigger (off),
fire off,
let fly,
• (of a violent emotion or a situation) arise or develop suddenly.
• "tension which could explode into violence at any time"
• increase suddenly in size, number, or extent.
• "the use of this drug exploded in the nineties"
Similar:
increase suddenly,
increase rapidly,
increase dramatically,
mushroom,
snowball,
escalate,
multiply,
burgeon,
rocket,
shoot up,
accelerate,
heighten,
• show (a belief or theory) to be false or unfounded.
• "the myths that link smoking with glamour need to be exploded"
Similar:
disprove,
refute,
deny,
rebut,
invalidate,
gainsay,
negate,
repudiate,
discredit,
debunk,
belie,
give the lie to,
expose,
deflate,
puncture,
quash,
contradict,
ridicule,
blow up,
blow sky-high,
knock the bottom out of,
cut down to size,
pick holes in,
shoot full of holes,
shoot down (in flames),
blow out of the water,
controvert,
confute,
negative,
Origin:
mid 16th century (in the sense ‘reject scornfully’): from Latin explodere ‘drive out by clapping, hiss off the stage’, from ex- ‘out’ + plaudere ‘to clap’. explode (sense 4) is derived from the original sense of the word. explode (sense 1) (late 18th century) evolved via an old sense ‘expel with violence and sudden noise’, perhaps influenced by obsolete displode ‘burst with a noise’.
