detonate

First attested in 1729; either borrowed from French détoner or directly from Latin dētonātus, perfect passive participle of dētonō (“to thunder down (strongly); (figuratively, of a person) to thunder, speak threateningly, to rage; to stop thundering”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dē- (“off, from”) +‎ tonō (“to thunder”)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂-. The current interlingual meaning seems to be a new formation in postclassical times (to thunder → make a large noise → explode), compare explode.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛtəneɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛtəˌneɪt/, [ˈdɛɾəˌneɪt], [ˈdɛʔ.əˌneɪt]
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈdetənæɪt/, [ˈdeɾənæɪt]

detonate (third-person singular simple present detonates, present participle detonating, simple past and past participle detonated)

1. (intransitive) To explode, blow up

   Synonym: blast

   1. (especially) To combust or decompose supersonically via shock compression.

      Antonym: deflagrate

2. (transitive) To cause to explode.

   The engineers detonated the dynamite and watched the old building collapse.

3. (intransitive, figurative) To express sudden anger.

   Synonyms: fulminate, thunder

   • 2013, Michael J. Restrepo, The Custody Officer, page 116:

     As Oscar turned to greet Yvonne, she could see every muscle in his body contract in anger. Then he detonated. “What the hell are you doing here without an appointment? […]

• combust

• denotate

detonate

1. adverbial present passive participle of detonar

detonate

1. inflection of detonare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

detonate f pl

1. feminine plural of detonato

• denotate

dētonāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dētonō

detonate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of detonar combined with te