EXPLOSIVE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Explosive

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/ɪksplˈoʊsɪv/ Listen

Explosive

adjective

Serving to explode or characterized by explosion or sudden outburst. "Explosive gas" , "Explosive force" , "Explosive violence" , "An explosive temper"

Liable to lead to sudden change or violence. Synonym: volatile. "A volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation"

Sudden and loud.

noun

A chemical substance that undergoes a rapid chemical change (with the production of gas) on being heated or struck.

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"Explosive" Quotes from Famous Books

... child in his arms, and she nestled to his breast as to a mother's, and clasped him in hands that were strong like vices. He felt her whole body shaken by the throes of distress, and had pity upon her beyond speech. Pity, and at the same time a bewildered fear of this explosive engine in his arms, whose works he did not understand, and yet had been tampering with. There arose from before him the curtains of boyhood, and he saw for the first time the ambiguous face of woman as she is. In vain he looked back ...

— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... seconds Agassiz stood as if himself petrified; then, without even an 'Excuse me,' he vanished by the same door. Presently he returned, flushed, gazing ruefully at the fragments in his hand, covered with mucilage or liquid glue. After a pause, during which those who knew him not awaited an explosive denunciation of gaucherie, Agassiz said quietly: 'In Natural History it is not enough to know how to study specimens; it is also necessary to know how to handle them'—and then ...

— Louis Agassiz as a Teacher • Lane Cooper

... seemed to suffer a sensation of cruel restraint from what she called our English reserve; though we thought we were very cordial with her: but we did not slap her on the shoulder, and if we consented to kiss her cheek, it was done quietly, and without any explosive smack. These omissions oppressed and depressed her considerably; still, on the whole, we got on very well. Accustomed to instruct foreign girls, who hardly ever will think and study for themselves— who have no idea of grappling ...

— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... out to clasp the frightened girl. Hilary seemed to uncoil. His fist shot straight up with all the power of his body behind it. It crashed into the jutting jaw of the Mercutian like a charge of high explosive dynol. For all his height and massive strength, the giant toppled over, ...

— Slaves of Mercury • Nat Schachner

... goblins? Well, let's strike a match and light up: then perhaps we may. That's one good thing about these hollows,—there is no explosive gas, like there is in a coal mine. There, take this and hold it out before you," he continued, as he closed and passed the lanthorn. "Lift it up! ...

— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

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