Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday July 17, 2012
deflagrate \DEF-luh-greyt\
, verb:
To burn, especially suddenly and violently.
Then the split second realization that something was very, very wrong, as the electricity rushed down the thin wires, sending a spark across a gap in the blasting cap, detonating the cap and sending the shock wave into the explosive charge, causing it to deflagrate at blinding speed, quicker than the mind could imagine.
-- John F. Mullins, Into the Treeline
Whereas Marcel finds disappointment in his return's incapacity to deflagrate, to 'flame up' his memory, Sassoon savours a kind of immediacy when he reaches the Rectory at Edingthorpe...
-- Robert Hemmings, Modern Nostalgia
Deflagrate is derived from the Latin root flagrāre meaning "to burn." The common prefix de- can denote intensity, as well as removal.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for deflagrate
