How to Use detonate in a Sentence

detonate

verb
Definition of detonatenext
Synonyms for detonatenext
  • These guys are working around the clock now to try and find them, collect them and detonate them and allow the people to come back into their homes.
    — ABC News, 1 May 2022
  • Lead boosts octane levels, allowing the mixture of fuel and air to detonate at precisely the right time.
    — Michael J. Coren, Quartz, 16 June 2022
  • Novak introduces clichés and stereotypes only to detonate them — or, better yet, fill them in in ways that show us how the stereotypes are real and not real.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 13 June 2022
  • Right when the two were getting along better than ever, here was this ticking time bomb set to detonate in Season Two and make things between them so much worse.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 10 May 2022
  • Moscow only said that a fire onboard caused ammunition stocks to detonate, prompting an evacuation of the crew.
    — Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2022
  • It was designed to rise 70 miles above Earth, fly across the world in 25 minutes and detonate within a few hundred yards of its target.
    — Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2022
  • The 21-member crew remained on board Monday evening, sheltered in place as the explosives were detonated, officials said.
    — Jean Marbella, Baltimore Sun, 13 May 2024
  • Many of those unexploded weapons, which include bullets, shells, grenades and landmines, still have the potential to detonate, posing risks to the residents of Laos.
    — Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 14 June 2022
  • But this speed also puts the team at risk: The Shabab will sometimes detonate a second bomb in the area of an attack, specifically meant to target those arriving to help.
    — New York Times, 20 May 2022
  • One method of attack is to detonate on contact with the side of the hull.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 16 Nov. 2022
  • That allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin to detonate the primer.
    — CBS News, 16 Aug. 2022
  • The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs.
    — Brian Flood, Fox News, 13 June 2023
  • One of the busiest bridges over that gulf has been detonated and may take time to rebuild.
    — Paul J. Hastings, STAT, 22 Mar. 2023
  • But mines were still in the bushes, waiting to detonate.
    — New York Times, 5 July 2022
  • Serber used the angle of the window frame on the wall to calculate the height at which the bomb detonated.
    — Kelsey Atherton, Vulture, 26 July 2023
  • The bombs fell wide and failed to detonate, and Ms. Dugdale and Mr. Gallagher went into hiding to plot their next move.
    — Clay Risen, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
  • In this case, the explosives failed to detonate, and there were no reports of injuries.
    — Gordon Lubold, WSJ, 5 Nov. 2023
  • The core then failed to detonate in a Type Ia supernova.
    — Lyndie Chiou, Quanta Magazine, 8 Feb. 2023
  • It was detonated after Bolles returned to his car and backed out of the parking lot.
    — Richard Ruelas, The Arizona Republic, 31 May 2024
  • The Dali's 21-member crew will shelter in place aboard the ship while the explosives are detonated.
    — NPR, 12 May 2024
  • The winner will leave the island with a lifetime pension; if there is more than one survivor, the collars will detonate.
    — Simon Parkin, The New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2023
  • The Dali's 21-member crew will stay onboard the ship while the explosives are detonated.
    — CBS News, 13 May 2024
  • The Dali’s 21-member crew will stay onboard the ship while the explosives are detonated.
    — Lea Skene, Fortune, 12 May 2024
  • The drone dropped back to earth — a nerve-racking moment, as the explosive was already triggered to detonate.
    — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 8 May 2023
  • Then, right before our eyes, Mount Arawang appears to detonate.
    — John Vaillant, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2023
  • The charge failed to detonate, and the devices landed without causing injury.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2024
  • But the conditions that allowed the fire to detonate at such swift speeds remain, and are just a spark away from wreaking more havoc on the region.
    — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 26 July 2022
  • The latter was killed in a St. Petersburg cafe when a bomb hidden in a statuette award was detonated.
    — Brady Knox, Washington Examiner, 6 Nov. 2023
  • Salts and other metal compounds allow a firework to detonate in bursts of bright blue or rich red.
    — Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 30 June 2022
  • Militants detonate bombs at Shiite shrines, the Islamic State kills thirty soldiers at a desert station, Israeli missiles paralyze the country’s airports.
    — John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detonate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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