How to Use detonate in a Sentence

detonate

verb
  • The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
  • The team that detonates the bomb the fastest becomes the Tribunal of Four.
    Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 30 Apr. 2020
  • 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
  • Once on board, the plotters would combine the two and detonate a bomb.
    CNN, 26 Aug. 2021
  • One of them was found with a cellphone that may have been meant to detonate it.
    Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, 23 Feb. 2021
  • 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
  • Joséphine’s carriage had just reached the palace gate when the bomb detonated.
    National Geographic, 20 Dec. 2019
  • In these songs, noise is a means to detonate all conceptions of self.
    Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 8 Dec. 2020
  • Lamb kebab is soft bites of ground meat that detonate with jalapeño.
    Washington Post, 14 Aug. 2020
  • The result is a pair of charm bombs detonating on both sides of a cardboard cutout.
    Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2020
  • But mines were still in the bushes, waiting to detonate.
    New York Times, 5 July 2022
  • The drillers are assigned to drill on the surface of the asteroid and detonate a bomb within it.
    Alexia Fernández, PEOPLE.com, 11 Jan. 2022
  • What’s a fore-end and how does a firing pin detonate a cartridge?
    Andrew McKean, Outdoor Life, 2 Oct. 2020
  • 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
  • Natasha was the one who made the call to detonate the bombs, knowing full well that Dreykov's innocent daughter would die in the blast too.
    Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 12 July 2021
  • 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
  • Suicide bombers drove pickup trucks to the gates of the two embassies and detonated thousands of pounds of TNT in the attacks.
    Phil Helsel, NBC News, 7 Feb. 2020
  • In 1997, a surprise predawn raid in Park Slope, Brooklyn, revealed a ready-to-detonate pipe bomb.
    Emily R. Daniel New York Daily News (tns), Star Tribune, 8 Nov. 2020
  • 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 video turns to color just as someone detonates the container with the men inside.
    Demicia Inman, VIBE.com, 17 Oct. 2024
  • 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
  • The Dali's 21-member crew will shelter in place aboard the ship while the explosives are detonated.
    NPR, 12 May 2024
  • The planners were concerned that Abdullah, if trapped, might detonate a bomb that took the building down with him.
    Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Unknown to the men, the rod was an explosive that did not detonate in the bridge demolishment, the complaint said.
    Paige Fry, chicagotribune.com, 24 Sep. 2021
  • There is no fuel to ignite, and ammunition may be nearby but not close enough to cause damage if detonated.
    David Hambling, Forbes, 6 Nov. 2024
  • Last year, a study published in the journal Physics of Fluids calculated where in a building might be safest to shelter in the case of a nuclear bomb being detonated nearby.
    Tom Rogers, Newsweek, 25 Nov. 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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