From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetonatedet‧o‧nate /ˈdetəneɪt/ verb [intransitive, transitive] PMTIEXPLODEto explode or to make something explode► see thesaurus at explode —detonation /ˌdetəˈneɪʃən/ noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
detonate• The beauty of C4 is that you can apply pressure or heat and it will not detonate.• The bomb, like yesterday's, was designed to be detonated by a mobile phone.• At first they were detonated by cables or tripwires.• Ammo dumps were being detonated by incoming mortars and rockets, and all hell was breaking loose.• The 200 kg bomb was detonated by terrorists using a remote-control device.• Tense soldiers detonated concussion grenades in an effort to disperse the crowds.• In court he was a good enough actor to detonate his one-liners with a casual deadliness.• Nuclear bombs were detonated in tests in the desert.• They were detonated just before 8: 30 p. m., when most of the neighborhood business was winding down.• Army experts detonated the bomb safely in a nearby field.• That was their stake and it detonated the kind of politics which are the stuff of socialism in our society.Origin detonate (1700-1800) Latin detonare, from tonare “to thunder” 