Definition of "detonate" []

• To explode or cause to explode. (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.

• "I couldn't have been more confused had they used the word "detonate.""
• "One, a car bombing that was found in the -- a car bomb I should say, it did not detonate, which is the good news -- found in the Haymarket Theatre district as smoke coming out the passenger side of that vehicle."
• "It was theorized that a round with much less than full case capacity of powder may sometimes "detonate" en mass instead of the normal burn from one end of the powder column to the other, this detonation produces a instant pressure spike that is so sudden that the bullet's inertia cannot be overcome quickly enough to let the pressure lower."