Other forms: bursts, bursting
To burst is to break open suddenly because of the pressure inside. A balloon, a pipe in a frost, a bag with too much in it.
The past tense is also burst, which catches learners out. The word extends to sudden action, so people burst into a room, burst into tears and burst out laughing, and each of those is a fixed phrase. As a noun a burst is a short intense episode, so a burst of speed or a burst of applause. Bursting to do something means being desperate to.
1verbburstTo break open suddenly from internal pressure.
“The pipe burst during the cold snap.”
2verbforcefullyTo do something suddenly and forcefully.
“He burst into the room without knocking.”
3nounshortA short sudden episode of something.
“There was a burst of laughter from the kitchen.”
Burst has always meant burst. Proto-Indo-European bʰres, to break, crack or split, runs through Proto-Germanic brestaną to Old English berstan without ever changing its mind.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰres- — to burst, break, crack, split, separate
Proto-Germanic
*brestaną
Proto-West Germanic
*brestan
Old English
berstan
Middle English
bresten
English, today
burst
Built from
From Middle English bresten, bersten, from Old English berstan, from Proto-West Germanic brestan, from Proto-Germanic brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”), enlargement of bʰreHi- (“to snip, split”). See also West Frisian boarste, Dutch barsten, Danish briste, Swedish brista; also Irish bris (“to break”)). More at brine. Also cognate to debris.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA