Crossword clues for detonate
detonate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Detonate \Det"o*nate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Detonated; p. pr. & vb. n. Detonating.] [L. detonare, v. i., to thunder down; de + tonare to thunder; akin to E. thunder. See Thunder, and cf. Detonize.] To explode with a sudden report; as, niter detonates with sulphur.
Detonate \Det"o*nate\, v. t. To cause to explode; to cause to burn or inflame with a sudden report.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1729, a back-formation from detonation, or else from Latin detonatus, past participle of detonare. Related: Detonated; detonating.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (label en intransitive) To explode; to blow up. Specifically, to combust supersonically via shock compression. 2 (label en transitive) To cause an explosion.
WordNet
Usage examples of "detonate".
The twenties come in HE, armor-piercing, and smoke, and any of them can be detonated as an airburst up to about a mile.
Then the Bushmaster went off like a bomb, its fuel tank detonating as an orange-red fireball, twisted metal debris spewing outward.
The shield crews were slower to grab his attacks, and the proximity fuses detonated within meters of the ship.
Impact velocity alone would have been enough to tear her body apart, with the EEs detonating as well there was nothing left for the last three rounds to hit.
L ght, white and flashing, sprayed across the bridge as t e Klingon torpedoes impacted with the forward scr ns and detonated.
Both skips detonated, sending a cloud of gases and yorik coral chunks hurtling along their course.
Making fuels from sunlight could be the first really new economic activity for deserts since the AEC realized back in the 50s that they were useful for sequestering unneighborly activities like detonating nuclear devices.
Maybe only specific types of chemical canisters remained intact when detonated.
They fired the electric current into the det, which detonated some det cord and blew up the plastic explosive.
One pull on that trigger and the huge barrel of explosives would detonate, spreading a fiery chain reaction to every other barrel, keg, drum, box and crate in the armory building, an explosion that would level the fortress.
He watched, holding his breath, waiting for the fireworks as they detonated.
Brand in exile, Brand junkless, Brand writing the novel that would detonate in the gut of America like a fiery bacterial bombshell.
Again, on 12 February 1947, yet another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometres from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivalling that of the newly invented uranium bomb.
Again, this is not to suggest that we should ignore these threats, only that the risk is appreciably less than with a nuclear weapon, which only has to be near enough people when it is detonated to kill millions.
The turmoil caused by two torpedos detonating within seconds of each other had left a sound void in the water, and it was absolutely foolish to wait for it to clear.