Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Burst

[burst]

verb (used without object)

to break, break open, or fly apart with sudden violence: The bitter cold caused the pipes to burst.

to issue forth suddenly and forcibly, as from confinement or through an obstacle: Oil burst to the surface. He burst through the doorway.

to give sudden expression to or as if to emotion: to burst into applause; to burst into tears.

to be extremely full, as if ready to break open: The house was bursting with people.

to appear suddenly; become visible, audible, evident, etc., all at once: The sun burst through the clouds.

verb (used with object)

to cause to break or break open suddenly and violently: He burst the balloon.

to cause or suffer the rupture of: to burst a blood vessel.

to separate (the parts of a multipart stationery form consisting of interleaved paper and carbon paper).

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Burst is one of our favorite verbs.

So is absquatulate. Does it mean:

to run away hurriedly; flee.

to flee; abscond:

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

noun

an act or instance of bursting.

10.

a sudden, intense display, as of activity, energy, or effort: The car passed us with a burst of speed.

11.

a sudden expression or manifestation, as of emotion: a burst of affection.

12.

a sudden and violent issuing forth: a burst of steam from the pipe.

13.

Military.

the explosion of a projectile, especially in a specified place: an air burst.

a rapid sequence of shots fired by one pull on the trigger of an automatic weapon: A burst from the machine gun shattered all the windows.

EXPAND

14.

the result of bursting; breach; gap: a burst in the dike.

15.

a sudden appearance or opening to view.

COLLAPSE

Idiom

16.

burst at the seams, to be filled to or beyond normal capacity: This room will be bursting at the seams when all the guests arrive.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English bersten, bursten, Old English berstan (past. plural burston), cognate with Old High German brestan (German bersten), Old Norse bresta; akin to break

Related forms

non·burst·ing, adjective, noun

un·burst, adjective

Can be confused: break, bust, burst (see synonym note at break; see usage note at bust²).

Synonyms
1. crack, explode. 6. rend, tear. 10. spurt. 11, 12. outbreak.

Usage note
See bust².

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To Burst

Example Sentences

My financial crisis started way before the housing bubble burst.

Perhaps the education bubble is already beginning to burst.

Tundra lands are snow-covered for much of the year, until summer brings a burst of wildflowers.

EXPAND

My financial crisis started way before the housing bubble burst.

Perhaps the education bubble is already beginning to burst.

Tundra lands are snow-covered for much of the year, until summer brings a burst of wildflowers.

Using high-speed videography, scientists observed surface bubbles as they burst.

Laussat, standing on the balcony of the town hall, burst into tears.

But when the gates swing open, visitors are treated to a surprising burst of color.

Its pictures could crack a mirror and its audio might burst an eardrum.

The women in the audience burst into sustained laughter and applause.

It is doubtful that being burst by a laser is worse than being hit by a burst from a machine gun.

The gas likely burst forth as little as one million to ten million years ago.

Meanwhile, the world's older dams are in dire need of refurbishment, lest the floods burst their bounds.

Then two helicopters burst out from behind a hillside, and the cranes vaulted away.

Deciduous trees start their growth with a burst of new leaves or flowers in early spring, then remain in leaf through summer.

If you're after speed, run your foot next to the board to make your character push for a burst of speed.

Which one will burst sooner and which one more quickly is moot.

Spain's structural faults were long hidden by a housing bubble and have been glaringly exposed now that it has burst.

Occasionally, however, stress builds up and is released suddenly in a great burst of seismic waves.

Fortunes can be made or lost on the stock exchange, a fact well illustrated recently by the dot-com bubble burst.

When some guy with a monocle burst through the back door.

Pasta and chicken get a burst of color and flavor from the addition of in-season greens.

Despite the sudden burst of success, the venture was plagued with setbacks.

When interest rates finally rose, the housing bubble burst.

Australia's housing bubble could be the first to burst.

What makes this shot work is the dramatic burst of blue spurting into the crowd.

To make it travel more efficiently, researchers blasted a short burst of sound at an electron trapped in an energy well.

Bring to a boil, and stir until all cranberries have burst and liquid becomes thick.

They gave a futon a burst of color with fabric and pillows from an import store.

With cruel irony, the overflow has helped to burst the river's banks in the city.

Hit the shutter as the firework is launching and hold it down until the burst has faded, typically a few seconds.

But well before all that happened, another event triggered a different burst of evolutionary activity.

Plant one of these shurbs or small trees for a burst of color in your fall-to-winter garden.

GE may at last be preparing itself for a refreshing burst of honesty.

Rockhopper penguins often burst from the water near shore and land on rocks with a belly flop.

Sam reaches out and, in a burst of strength, pulls herself to the cliff's upper edge.

It has become so fashionable that some wonder if it is a bubble waiting to burst.

Instead, they heat them to the point that their cell walls burst.

The only alternative to a deflationary squeeze would be a burst of central bank money printing leading to hyperinflation.

Instead, he felt that central banks should wait to mop up the mess once the bubble had burst.

The balloon soared into the stratosphere and eventually burst.

Gunmen burst into a birthday party where people were dancing and opened fire, killing at least.

Sometimes the burst of adrenaline you get the night before the deadline is enough to propel you to a successful finish.

Every time a gamma-ray burst goes off, a black hole is born.

Without warning, a huge carnivorous dinosaur burst from its cover in a nearby stand of trees.

While conducting a routine search for distant supernovae, astronomers observed a bright burst of.

And the housing bubble will eventually burst whatever we.

The students were among eight people killed when the hit men burst into a popular nightclub and opened fire.

But its tech industries still have to show they can burst through old constraints.

Meteorologists observe the effects of dusts and gases as they burst into the atmosphere and sometimes travel around the globe.

Simple math may explain why toddlers experience a sudden burst of words-and why some talk earlier and more than others.

The aims of this study are to explore the recent burst of dinosaur work and to resolve whether the new phase is illusory or not.

There's no time machines, unless you count the degrading sack of pimply skin and burst.

Lazzeretti had a brush with death after his appendix burst a few weeks before filming was to begin.

Not to burst your bubble all over again, but this is probably inaccurate.

The projectile burst from the round takes care of the rest.

But the alternative, of allowing a bubble to inflate which is bound to burst eventually, would be even more painful.

The capsule shot to the surface, where its hatch burst open.

Increased temperatures and carbon dioxide caused burst of evolution.

And a secret-spilling website flirting with insolvency and dissolution suddenly burst onto the world stage.

They had some economist who had prdicted the burst of the dot-com bubble.

In standard flash photography, a bulb on the camera releases a burst of light.

Suddenly she burst into a run and leaped toward her prey.

Specifically, volcanism, as enormous flows of basalt burst to.

But the project's failure to bring about miraculous changes in health care burst biotech's stock market bubble.

Shdefat's ideas burst through her language limits and her enthusiasm was infectious.

It has a much lower ignition temperature than a tree does and the radiant heat caused it to burst into flame.

These compounds form thin films that surround the bubbles and slow the rate at which they burst.

The zinc can would often swell and burst its seams.

Then, about a month from now, it will burst open and thousands of tiny spiders will stream forth.

In standard flash photography a burst of light strikes a subject, and some of it bounces back to the camera to create an image.

And every second, hundreds of thousands of them slam together in a burst of obscure particles.

It is a phenomenon where some materials can change color when a burst of charge is applied.

It was discovered when a blood vessel in the tumor burst creating all the symptoms of a stroke.

With a posse of followers, he burst into a lecture hall, poured hot tar on the professor and then decorated him with feathers.

But the never-before-seen display may also one day lead to a new burst of star and planet formation.

If the object has sufficient acceleration, it can burst through this barrier of sound waves and move ahead of the radiated sound.

Galactic collisions often trigger a burst of new star formation.

Since a taumatic brain episode in which a blood vessel burst in a brain tumor, much of my memory for details is kaput.

He burst into a tiny chamber of commerce and began joking with businessmen, teachers and farmers.

The earlier drilling may have burst the treasure chest and scattered its contents into the.

In the more rare hemorrhagic type of stroke, vessels in the brain burst and bleed.

The sense of a higher education bubble about to burst never leaves me for long.

When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other and emit a burst of electromagnetic energy.

We hoped one or more of the photographs would prompt some of the monitored neurons to fire a burst of action potentials.

In sci-fi movies, exposure to the vacuum causes humans to instantly freeze solid or burst.

Their search revealed a bright ultraviolet burst in the precise location of the supernova about three weeks before the explosion.

When axons burst open, they often distribute amyloid proteins through the neighboring brain tissue.

Perhaps they were primed by the sweetness to expect a burst of calories, and when that didn't follow, they kept eating and eating.

Exam time was trauma time: every year, several burst into tears during the oral.

Occasionally the magnetic field lines release a burst of trapped energy, causing substorms that intensify auroras.

Active replication of the phage causes the bacterial cells to burst open, which releases the phage.

Bubbles burst in the real world, and prices have to come down.

Normally dry creek beds roar with water, and seeds long dormant burst into fields of wildflowers.

When the starting pistol fires, sprinters launch into the race with a burst of acceleration.

The housing bubble has burst and residential construction has seized up.

The paddlers, along with a dozen bike riders and joggers who've stopped to watch, burst into applause.

Sorry to burst anybodies bubble and yes there are two ways to spell both words thanks to our french counterparts.

Petroleum gave us the population bubble, and petroleum will burst the bubble.

Extreme cold following blizzards can burst pipes in homes without insulation or heat and jam rivers with ice, causing floods.

When rain finally falls, they burst back to life in an explosion of color.

Often the explosions start as a pinpoint and burst outward with a flash and a roar.

It was not long before a big crocodile burst from the water and caught it between its.

There must have been quite a burst of innovation, because within a century or two the wheel appeared as well.

When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in a burst of energy.

The latter starts with a bang--a burst of high-frequency energy that rapidly tails off.

Many experts feared the quake's immense burst of energy would spawn a tsunami.

Our embroidered tunic brings a burst of colorful flowers to your spring wardrobe.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

burst (bɜːst)

—vb , bursts, bursting, burst
1.	to break or cause to break open or apart suddenly and noisily, esp from internal pressure; explode
2.	(intr) to come, go, etc, suddenly and forcibly: he burst into the room
3.	(intr) to be full to the point of breaking open
4.	(intr) to give vent (to) suddenly or loudly: to burst into song
5.	to cause or suffer the rupture of: to burst a blood vessel

—n
6.	a sudden breaking open or apart; explosion
7.	a break; breach; rupture
8.	a sudden display or increase of effort or action; spurt: a burst of speed
9.	a sudden and violent emission, occurrence, or outbreak: a burst of heavy rain; a burst of applause
10.	a volley of fire from a weapon or weapons

—*adj*
11.	broken apart; ruptured: a burst pipe

[Old English berstan; related to Old Norse bresta, Old Frisian bersta, Old High German brestan; compare break]

'burster

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

burst

O.E. berstan "break suddenly" (class III strong verb; past tense bærst, pp. borsten), from a W.Gmc. metathesis of P.Gmc. *brestanan (cf. O.Fris. bersta, M.Du. berstan, Low Ger. barsten), from PIE base *bhres- "to burst, break, crack." The forms reverted to brest- in M.E. from influence of O.N.

EXPAND

brestan/brast/brosten from the same Gmc. root, but it was re-metathesized late 16c. and emerged in the modern form, though brast was common as p.t. through 17c. and survives in dialect.

COLLAPSE

Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com

Searching for Burst?
How many words do you actually know?

FIND OUT

Related Words

break flame flare blow birse erupt

explode flash gamma-ray burst sunburst airburst boil

Images for Burst

Matching Quote

"And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."

-unknown author

Partners:Word Bloglines Citysearch The Daily Beast Ask Answers Ask Kids Life123 Sendori Thesaurus

About Privacy Policy Terms of Use API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Help