Other forms: exploded, exploding, explodes
To explode is to burst apart with great force. A bomb, a boiler, a firework.
The physical sense is about sudden violent expansion, and the noun is explosion. English uses it constantly for anger, so somebody who explodes has lost their temper all at once, and for growth, since a population can explode. There is a useful third sense in argument, since exploding a myth means demolishing it with evidence. The adjective explosive covers substances and situations alike.
1verbexplodeTo burst apart violently.
“The gas tank exploded on impact.”
2verbincreaseTo increase very suddenly, or to lose your temper.
“Demand for the product exploded overnight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
To explode was to boo. Latin explōdere meant to drive an actor off the stage by clapping, from ex, out, and plaudere, to applaud. The bang is a late arrival, but the noise was always the point.
Latin
explōdō
English, today
explode
Built from
Borrowed from Latin explōdō. First recorded around 1538, from the Latin - verb explōdere (“drive out or off by clapping”). The meaning was originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence meaning to "to drive out" or "to reject". From ex- (“out”) + plaudere (“to clap; to applaud”). In English it used to mean to "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (from around 1660), and later meaning to "go off with a loud noise" (from around 1790). The sense of "bursting with destructive force" is first recorded around 1882.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA