burst
/bɝst/ verb B1- 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 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.
- To erupt; to change state suddenly as if bursting. · The flowers burst into bloom on the first day of spring.
- To produce as an effect of bursting. · to burst a hole through the wall
- To interrupt suddenly in a violent or explosive manner; to shatter.
- 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.
He/she/it bursts · Past burst · Past participle burst · -ing form bursting
Verb forms
- Base form
- burst
- He/she/it
- bursts
- Past
- burst
- Past participle
- burst
- -ing form
- bursting
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else’—but, oh dear!” cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, “I do wish they _would_ put their heads down!
The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it _would_ twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
Teacher of the Law--cub-beater--a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open.
I’m going to burst into tears!”
Other matches
Learn burst in real texts
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