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Definition of "deflagrate" []

  • To burn or cause to burn with great heat and intense light. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "deflagrate" in a sentence
  • "This explosion is of a magnitude that could not be caused by anything built in to the buildings or city infrastructure diesel fuel tank for a generator wouldn't detonate like that, it would deflagrate - there's a difference."
  • "The current induced in the secondary wire of a coil by the discharge of the condenser through the primary, was also sufficiently intense to deflagrate wires of considerable length and thickness."
  • "Finally, if the amount of picric acid be still further increased under these conditions, it will undergo partial decomposition and volatilise, but will not even deflagrate."