How to Use detonate in a Sentence

detonate

verb
  • The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
  • The result is a pair of charm bombs detonating on both sides of a cardboard cutout.
    Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2020
  • The low-power device, detonated by a cellphone, was designed to burn rather than explode.
    Joyu Wang, WSJ, 4 Mar. 2020
  • The mortar was too unstable to move a long distance and was moved to a safe area and detonated, according to police.
    USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest while fleeing, killing himself and his three children.
    Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 6 Feb. 2020
  • 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
  • When activated, an exploder detonates a gas mixture, deploying a pressure wave onto the surface of the snow to trigger a slide.
    Gregory Thomas, SFChronicle.com, 1 Apr. 2020
  • That pharmacy, too, is gone after the Israeli military detonated part of that village.
    Sally Abou Aljoud, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
  • When the woman squatted, her bomb accidentally detonated.
    Dionne Searcey, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2020
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Law enforcement arrested Philippi on site at the plant in possession of the powered up drone moments before the explosive devices were set to detonate, according to court documents.
    Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 5 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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