explode

• asplode, esplode (all non-standard)

First recorded around 1538, from the Latin verb explōdere meaning to "drive out or off by clapping". The meaning was originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence meaning to "to drive out" or "to reject". From ex- (“out”) + plaudere (“to clap; to applaud”). In English it used to mean to "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (from around 1660), and later meaning to "go off with a loud noise" (from around 1790).

The sense of "bursting with destructive force" is first recorded around 1882.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈspləʊd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈsploʊd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊd

explode (third-person singular simple present explodes, present participle exploding, simple past and past participle exploded)

1. (transitive) To destroy with an explosion.

   The assassin exploded the car by means of a car bomb.

2. (transitive) To destroy violently or abruptly.

   They sought to explode the myth.

3. (transitive) To create an exploded view of.

   Explode the assembly drawing so that all the fasteners are visible.

4. (transitive, archaic) To disprove or debunk.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , II, 344

     Astrology is required by many famous physicians […] doubted of, and exploded by others.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     [W]henever the person who is possessed of [natural goodness] doth what is right, no ravished or friendly spectator is so eager or so loud in his applause: on the contrary, when he doth wrong, no critic is so apt to hiss and explode him.

   • 1783, Richard Wooddeson, Lectures on the Law of England, 229

     Another instance of the like nature is, that the old opinion, that Turks and infidels are perpetually to be considered as alien enemies, has been long exploded.

5. (intransitive) To blast, to blow up, to burst, to detonate, to go off.

   The bomb explodes.

6. (figuratively, intransitive) To make a violent or emotional outburst.

   She exploded when I criticised her hat.

   • 1902, Albert R. Carman, “My Bridal Trip” (short story), in The Canadian Magazine, Volume 20, Number 1 (November 1902), page 15:

     “Nonsense!” Jack exploded at me. “Why Miss Bertram here knocked that theory into a cocked hat coming over on the train.”

7. (computing, programming, PHP) To break (a delimited string of text) into several smaller strings by removing the separators.
   • 2004, Hugh E. Williams, David Lane, Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL

     The third check uses the exploded data stored in the array $parts and the function checkdate() to test if the date is a valid calendar date.

8. (transitive, computing) To decompress (data) that was previously imploded.
   • 1992, "Steve Tibbett", PKZIP Implode compression/decompression. (on newsgroup comp.compression)

     I'm looking for some code that will implode data using the PKZIP method.. and explode it. PKWare sells an object that you can link with that does the job, and we have licensed this, but we are now writing 32 bit code for MS-DOS and the PKWare stuff won't work […]

9. (transitive) To open all doors and hatches on an automobile.

• (to destroy with an explosion): blow up, blow, blast, burst
• (computing: break a delimited string of text): unstring

explode

1. second-person singular present active imperative of explodō