From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishburstburst1 /bɜːst $ bɜːrst/ ●●○ W3 verb (past tense and past participle burst) 1 BREAK OPENbreak open [intransitive, transitive]BREAK if something bursts, or if you burst it, it breaks open or apart suddenly and violently so that its contents come out The pipes had burst and the house was under two feet of water.► see thesaurus at break, explode2 → be bursting with something3 MOVE SUDDENLYmove suddenly [intransitive always + adverb/preposition]FAST/QUICK to move somewhere suddenly or quickly, especially into or out of a placeburst into/through/in etc Jo burst into the room.4 → burst open5 → be bursting to do something6 → be bursting7 → burst somebody’s bubble8 → burst its banks → full (up) to bursting at full1(1), → burst/prick somebody's bubble at bubble1(7), → the bubble bursts at bubble1(6) → burst in on/upon somebody/something → burst into something → burst onto/upon/on something → burst out→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
burst• The Concorde disaster was caused by a tyre bursting.• Thousands of gallons of oil flowed into the river when an oil pipeline burst.• Some days it felt like my head would burst.• As I approached Lovat and the two Officers, a shell burst a short distance away.• The dam burst after heavy rains.• It's a game in which children try to burst balloons by sitting on them.• The train struck a dam, which burst, flooding a small town.• Their fantastically long tails danced behind like bridal trains and burst into colour when they caught the sun's final rays.• But Chabert, infectious giggles and all, is close enough to her precocious character to want to burst some picture-perfect bubbles.• Eversince Doyle burst through the door, furious and shouting and shoving, she had stiffened into ice.pipes ... burst• The plumber is ill, the doctor's pipes have burst, and so on.burst into/through/in etc• The mob in reaction burst in and set the torch to the structure.• Banks of electrical jiggery-pokery burst into life.• She burst into tears and told me that Charlie had been killed on the Western Front.• This time he turned away, and burst into tears.• What would they do if she burst into tears?• Sure enough, the enemy mortars were bursting in the fields on both sides of the road.• Suddenly Tony Angotti burst through the mall doors.• His partner meanwhile, burst into the room, pistol in hand, the stammerer hard on his heels.burstburst2 ●○○ noun [countable] 1 BREAKthe act of something bursting or the place where it has burst a burst in the water pipe2 a) INCREASE IN ACTIVITY, FEELINGS ETCa short sudden effort or increase in activityburst of The van gave a sudden burst of speed. b) SOUNDa short sudden and usually loud soundburst of sharp bursts of machine gun fire c) ANGRYa sudden strong feeling or emotionburst of anger/enthusiasm/temper etcExamples from the Corpus
burst• There was a burst of incomprehensible laughter.• This had been Sir Ivor at his brilliant best, striking with one deadly burst of speed.• The fast twitch fibres have a much higher contraction speed and are associated with dynamic bursts of energy.• A loud burst of singing gave away the presence of the ubiquitous wren.• They scored 14 points in a five-minute burst.• Surface bursts of large nuclear weapons are an essential part of strategic nuclear war.burst of anger/enthusiasm/temper etc• This was the sort of reaction that usually followed a burst of temper bordering on rage.• She would have felt more able to respond if only he'd exploded in a burst of anger.• Uncontrolled and dazed, he seized the rim of the desk and heaved with a burst of anger.• Some three years on from that initial burst of enthusiasm and the corresponding outcry from the professional market much has changed.• This was my last burst of anger in defense of President Reagan.Origin burst1 Old English berstan 