burst
UK/bɜːst/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/bəːst/
burst verb: to break from internal pressure.
Verb
burst (third-person singular simple present bursts, present participle bursting, simple past burst or (archaic) brast or (nonstandard) bursted, past participle burst or (archaic) brast or (nonstandard) bursted or (rare) bursten)
- To break from internal pressure.
- I blew the balloon up too much, and it burst.
- To cause to break from internal pressure.
- I burst the balloon when I blew it up too much.
- To cause to break by any means.
- You will not pay for the glasses you have burst?c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- He burst his lance against the sand below.1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield...
- To separate (printer paper) at perforation lines.
- I printed the report on form-feed paper, then burst the sheets.
- To enter or exit hurriedly and unexpectedly.
- Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, trampling down the women who sought to bar the entrance with their bodies.1913, Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs, translated by E. MunguÍa, Jr.
- To erupt; to change state suddenly as if bursting.
- The flowers burst into bloom on the first day of spring.
- ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- To produce as an effect of bursting.
- to burst a hole through the wall
- He entered Maromme shouting for the people of the inn, burst open the door with a thrust of his shoulder, made for a sack of oats, emptied a bottle of sweet cider into the manger, and again mounted his nag, whose feet struck fire as it dashed along.1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X
- To interrupt suddenly in a violent or explosive manner; to shatter.
- The sharp report of a gun burst the silence, and a moment later the gate swung open.2001, Jeanette Windle, Cave of the Inca Re, page 115
- Of neurons: to exhibit an activation pattern where periods of rapid action potential spiking are followed by quiescent periods much longer than typical interspike intervals.
Noun
burst (plural bursts)
- An act or instance of bursting.
- The bursts of the bombs could be heard miles away.
- A sudden, often intense, expression, manifestation or display.
- I read it in two bursts.
- "It's my wedding-day," cried Biddy, in a burst of happiness, "and I am married to Joe!"1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- spurt
- A series of shots fired from an automatic firearm.
- The explosion of a bomb or missile.
- a ground burst; a surface burst
- A drinking spree.
burst meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
burst in Hindi
- to break from internal pressure
- फूटना phūṭnā
burst in Tamil
- வெடிப்பு
burst in Marathi
- to burst or explode
- फाटणे phāṭaṇe
- to burst or blow suddenly
- उडणे uḍaṇe
burst in Urdu
- بھڑکنا, پھٹنا, پھوٹنا, پھاڑنا, پھوڑنا
More languagesFewer languages
- burst in Bengali
- প্রস্ফুটিত prośphuṭito
- burst in Telugu
- పగలగొట్టు pagalagoṭṭu, చితుకు cituku, పగిలిపోవు pagilipōvu
- burst in Malayalam
- അടരുക aṭaruka
- burst in Kannada
- ಬಿರಿ biri, ಸೀಳು sīḷu
- burst in Punjabi
- ਪਾਟਣਾ pāṭṇā
- burst in Sanskrit
- स्फलति sphalati
- burst in Assamese
- ফুটা phuta
- burst in Tagalog
- putok
- burst in Malay
- meletus, meletup, pecah
- burst in Indonesian
- meletus, meletup, letupan, letusan
- burst in Thai
- แตก dtɛ̀ɛk, ระเบิด rá-bə̀ət
- burst in Vietnamese
- làm bể, bể, bị bể
Examples of burst in a sentence
- […] and only at Barnet did Tappin give Empire of India a burst to bring us up to the 60 m.p.h. speed ceiling of the London area.1956 December, W. J. Alcock, “On the Footplate of the "Elizabethan"”, in Railway Magazine, page 821:
- Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts.1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, page 1:
Synonyms of burst
Forms of burst
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | bursts |
| present participle | bursting |
| past | burst |
| past participle | burst |
| alternative form | brast |
| alternative form | brust |
| past (archaic) | brast |
| past (nonstandard) | bursted |
| past participle (archaic) | brast |
| past participle (nonstandard) | bursted |
| past participle (rare) | bursten |
| Noun | |
| plural | bursts |
Origin of burst
From Middle English bresten, bersten, from Old English berstan, from Proto-West Germanic *brestan, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”), enlargement of *bʰreHi- (“to snip, split”). See also West Frisian boarste, Dutch barsten, Danish briste, Swedish brista; also Irish bris (“to break”)). More at brine. Also cognate to debris.
Words formed from burst
- aburst
- bank-bursting
- burstability
- burstable
- burst a blood vessel
- burst at the seams
- burster
- burst forth
- burst in
- bursting pressure
- burst into
- burst into flame
- burst into flames
- burst into flower
- burst into tears
- burst out
- burst out laughing
- burst someone's bubble
- burst up
- fit to burst
- forburst
- reburst
- unburst
- afterburst
- airburst
- air burst
- air-burst
- bird burst
- black and burst
- budburst
- burstlet
- burst mode
- burst noise
- burstwise
- burstwort
- bursty
- circumburst
- cloud-burst
- cloudburst
- cloud burst
- colorburst
- damburst
- downburst
- extinction burst
- fast radio burst
- flavor burst
- gamma-ray burst
- groundburst
- inburst
- interburst
- intraburst
- last burst of fire
- macroburst
- mergeburst
- microburst
- miniburst
- on the burst
- outburst
- overburst
- postburst
Phrases with burst
Words that rhyme with burst
Questions about burst
- What does burst mean?
- Burst means to break from internal pressure.
- What is burst in Hindi?
- Burst in Hindi is फूटना (phūṭnā). See Burst meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use burst in a sentence?
- […] and only at Barnet did Tappin give Empire of India a burst to bring us up to the 60 m.p.h. speed ceiling of the London area.
- What part of speech is burst?
- Burst can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce burst?
- Burst is pronounced /bɜːst/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of burst?
- The past tense of burst is burst.
Words near burst in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: burst (page history and authors); burst (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उडणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); burst (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); প্রস্ফুটিত (Bengali) (page history and authors); അടരുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬಿರಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਪਾਟਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ফুটা (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-burst.ogg.
Cite this entry: “burst.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burst. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.