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popping

verb

present participle of pop
1
as in exploding
to break open or into pieces usually because of internal pressure a balloon popped suddenly and startled us all

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in snapping
to break suddenly with an explosive sound the last strand popped, causing the chandelier to drop to the floor with a great crash

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3
as in shattering
to cause to break open or into pieces by or as if by an explosive popping popcorn over a campfire

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in shooting
to strike with a missile from a gun went into the woods hoping to pop the rabbit that was eating our vegetables

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of popping That includes high-concept genre plays like Backrooms and Obsession and concert movies that surprise by popping at the box office. — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 21 Sep. 2026 Last week Tom Cruise shocked Chiefs fans by popping up in a suite with Taylor Swift at the season opener at Arrowhead Stadium. — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 21 Sep. 2026 The aesthetics are everything for the clubs popping up around the country. — Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 19 Sep. 2026 The city’s corporation counsel has also been tight-lipped, with no comment on what settlements on the horizon could be behind the eye-popping increase. — Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026 In the latter half of 1976, two very different live music scenes were popping at the exact same time across England and America. — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 18 Sep. 2026 The back-to-school feeling of popping into an indie bookstore for a brand new notebook. — Sarah Allard, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Sep. 2026 Twenty years later, the infamous exchange keeps popping up on social media — and in the algorithm of Page Six Radio host Evan Real, who brought it up to Aiken in a new interview on Thursday. — Kathleen Perricone, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Sep. 2026 The serpents aren't the only unusual visitors popping up off Southern California's coast. — Lesley Marin, CBS News, 17 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for popping
  1. exploding
  2. snapping
  3. shattering
  4. shooting
  5. detonating
  6. cracking
  7. smashing
  8. drilling
Verb
  • With player salaries and the salary cap exploding, however, Gauthier’s contract looks perfectly reasonable relative to the current market dynamics.
    — Shayna Goldman, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026
  • Far enough from the blast radius of champagne spritzes and exploding beers, the reliever, signed in late August, watched his new teammates let loose.
    — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of exploding
Verb
  • By ditching all-wheel drive for pure rear-wheel drive, VW is hoping driving dynamics, tactile steering feedback and chassis playfulness means more to modern buyers than raw neck-snapping speed.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 17 Sep. 2026
  • His coup de grâce is to toss the door at them and then drive on top of it, snapping the neck of one of the assailants caught beneath.
    — Chris Klimek, Vulture, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of snapping
Verb
  • Last week a number of concerned mathematicians, many of them at the top of their subject, launched the Association for Human Mathematics (AHM)—an effort that was underway even before the earth-shattering Navier-Stokes news.
    — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Maya’s fear of commitment mirrors the film’s fear of showing us anything truly ugly or grappling with the idea that our heroine is one of many, many people who lost someone during a society-shattering number of years.
    — Jourdain Searles, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of shattering
Verb
  • But his collaborators helped turn Beck into a cultural product, making videos, shooting photos, providing musical inspiration for samples.
    — Josephine Reisman, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Venice Beach may host Fox’s Baywatch, a reboot that’s become a symbol for Los Angeles’ attempt to keep big, splashy broadcast shows shooting in Hollywood’s historic home.
    — Erik Hayden, HollywoodReporter, 23 Sep. 2026
Definition of shooting
Verb
  • In a secret 1958 project, the Air Force considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon.
    — Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 17 Sep. 2026
  • McGuire also admitted to detonating the bomb in retaliation for various alleged government wrongs, including sheriff’s deputies seizing his firearms earlier that year.
    — Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of detonating
Verb
  • The actor Martinez also joins in on the creaturely fun by doubling as Chupacabrón, a wise-cracking cryptid who guides Yamel through the underworld.
    — Emily McClanathan, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026
  • In a moment of dead air between songs, as Lynch left the stage and Ferrone (who manned the skins through the latter half of the Heartbreakers’ career) claimed it, Campbell and Stapleton could be seen sharing some words and cracking each other up.
    — Adam Gold, Rolling Stone, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of cracking
Verb
  • The helicopter crashed in a driveway between two warehouses, smashing into a pair of truck cargo containers while the news crew tried grabbing video footage of a serious collision involving a Metro bus that also left two people dead.
    — Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026
  • In the rare instances people have spotted, these birds avoid getting stung by smashing the wasps on the ground to break the stingers before finishing their meal.
    — Sean Donnelly, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of smashing
Verb
  • The company is drilling toward rock measuring 750°F (400°C), where each well could deliver up to 10 times the power of a conventional geothermal well operating at 390°F (200°C).
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2026
  • And the best part is that Stark didn't have to start drilling holes in the battery or remove half the motorcycle to achieve it.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of drilling

Browse Nearby Words

poppets
popping
popping (in)
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Cite this Entry

“Popping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/popping. Accessed 25 Sep. 2026.

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