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.
Detonating \Det"o*na`ting\, a. & n. from Detonate.
Detonating gas, a mixture of two volumes of hydrogen with one volume of oxygen, which explodes with a loud report upon ignition.
Detonating powder, any powder or solid substance, as fulminate of mercury, which when struck, explodes with violence and a loud report.
Detonating primer, a primer exploded by a fuse; -- used to explode gun cotton in blasting operations.
Detonating tube, a strong tube of glass, usually graduated, closed at one end, and furnished with two wires passing through its sides at opposite points, and nearly meeting, for the purpose of exploding gaseous mixtures by an electric spark, as in gas analysis, etc.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of detonate English)
WordNet
Usage examples of "detonating".
Then the Bushmaster went off like a bomb, its fuel tank detonating as an orange-red fireball, twisted metal debris spewing outward.
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.
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.
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.
Van Effen stabbed the button and less than two seconds later, deep and muffled like a distant underwater explosion but very unmistakable for all that - to anyone with normal hearing, the sound must have been audible up to a kilometre away - the reverberation from the detonating amatol rolled across the square.
By the firelight, Murdock thought he could see the elongated shapes of bombs tumbling off the aircraft's wing racks, and a moment later, he heard the popcorn stuttering of clusterbomb bomblets detonating along the main highway.
Just a double-barrelled shotgun, but when she fires it, the report is as loud as a detonating backpack missile.
He couldn't see the B-l down low, but he knew he'd been there-the sight of a bunch of cluster bombs detonating across the desert floor just a few miles in front of him was hard to miss.
They had succeeded in cutting through the wire, detonating most of the mines, and destroying many of the humans' crew-served repeater positions.
We'll have to run a few more tests on the chemical-explosive charges-we don't have any data on the exact strength of the explosives they used then- and the tampers and detonating device will need to be tested a little.
The other end of the wire would be connected to the remote-control detonating device at the jailhouse.
Most importantly, you will also take with you, suitably wrapped in plastic, the krytron detonating device and conceal it well.
He had found a self-contained breathing unit and searched the holds for any sign of a detonating device, but could find nothing.
The experts deduced from the installation of the explosive and the detonating device—.
The experts deduced from the installation of the explosive and the detonating device--which was set to explode on a sudden deceleration, such as might be caused by contact at high relative velocity with another object--that had it come any closer to the Ship Yard it could have easily caused significant damage, not so much from the explosion itself as from the fragments propelled from the point of detonation by the explosives.