How to Use combust in a Sentence

combust

verb
  • As the match went on, there were early hints that Thiem would come alive and Zverev would combust.
    Ben Rothenberg, New York Times, 12 Aug. 2021
  • The trucks and the food and the medicine just spontaneously combusted.
    Anne Barnard and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2016
  • Also added that, in the meantime, the equipment cannot be used to combust hazardous waste.
    Sarah Bowman, The Indianapolis Star, 10 Apr. 2020
  • This causes them to combust and send a flame shooting out of the rocket engine.
    Daniel Oberhaus, Wired, 6 May 2020
  • And there’s no way the bear would spontaneously combust all on its own.
    Erik Kain, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2022
  • By the next year, the unrest would combust into the most fearsome rebellion of the long, hot summer of 1967.
    Eli Day, The New Republic, 5 Oct. 2020
  • But the intensity of the Castle fire caused some of the trees’ crowns to combust on a scale researchers had never seen before.
    Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2021
  • The plane glides with less friction, saving fuel, while the engines still have enough oxygen to combust the fuel.
    Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Sep. 2022
  • Comprised of about 40 percent lead, primer combusts completely, coating the shooter in a lead dust cloud from the end of the barrel.
    Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 8 May 2017
  • An active gas leak inside the building was also found but did not combust.
    Jim Riccioli, Journal Sentinel, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Like much of the West, New Mexico is in the grips of a yearslong drought that is drying up water supplies and leaving forests ready to combust.
    Dan Frosch and Alicia A. Caldwell, WSJ, 7 May 2022
  • There is more honor, or necessity, in fights that combust from the heat of the game than from those planned or predicted, the thinking goes.
    New York Times, 7 May 2021
  • Fire experts say to avoid plants with gummy sap, and high resin and oil levels that can easily combust.
    oregonlive, 28 June 2021
  • These springs keep engine valves closed when the fuel is being combusted.
    Sean McLain, WSJ, 1 Nov. 2018
  • One day one of the animatronic dolls combusted, and the head started smoking and caught on fire.
    Kaitlin Reilly, refinery29.com, 24 June 2019
  • Everything about this place, around a hundred miles from the Mexican border, feels like it’s about to combust.
    Michael J. Coren, Quartz, 20 Dec. 2020
  • Just as our world was being upended by the coronavirus, U.S. Soccer was in the process of self-combusting.
    Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 6 Apr. 2020
  • Twitter takeover, that site’s users find themselves in a holding pattern, waiting for the platform to combust and release them from its grasp.
    Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2022
  • Gobert, who earlier in the first half was in fact whistled for a technical foul, was asked what happened on the play to cause emotions to combust.
    Dallas News, 7 Mar. 2022
  • Babs sees that Vanya is about to combust, but nothing can stop his vengeance except his own ineptitude.
    Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Trump has kept a low profile as Democrats combust over Biden’s debate performance.
    Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 9 July 2024
  • However, of the 13 pounds of plutonium in the bomb's core -- only three points were combusted.
    Maria Elena Salinas, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2023
  • When the engine is running at 5,000 rpm, pretty much all the fuel that’s pouring into the cylinders gets combusted and used.
    Ray Magliozzi, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2023
  • If the gun is a rifle, which combusts near the shooter’s face, the person is coated with the fine particles, Filippelli said.
    Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 8 May 2017
  • Then the top jets (13) inject oxygen that is combusted with the gaseous fuel, producing a clean, smokeless fire.
    Kevin Dupzyk, Popular Mechanics, 15 Mar. 2017
  • Then the top jets (13) inject oxygen that is combusted with the gaseous fuel, producing a clean, smokeless fire.
    Kevin Dupzyk, Popular Mechanics, 15 Mar. 2017
  • Metta World Peace has just stumbled across the quickets way to make Adam Silver spontaneously combust out of rage and anger.
    Khadrice Rollins, SI.com, 12 May 2018
  • Heat and flame from the blast cause the solid fuel cells in rockets to combust, causing Grad rockets to stab outwards, blasting into the walls of the compound or flying over them.
    Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 5 July 2023
  • Producers have reassured viewers that the show will be back, but there isn’t a clear path forward for the group of former friends and lovers who have combusted into divisions and sects.
    Krystie Lee Yandoli, Rolling Stone, 20 July 2024
  • Tim O’Brien’s poetically opaque lyrics fester in a collection of pop-tinged punk tracks that sit on the alt-rock faultline—electric but primed to combust like an overheated loose wire.
    Margaret Farrell, SPIN, 2 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'combust.' 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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