How to Use detonate in a Sentence

detonate

verb

• The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
• One method of attack is to detonate on contact with the side of the hull.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 16 Nov. 2022
• That allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin to detonate the primer.
  — CBS News, 16 Aug. 2022
• The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs.
  — Brian Flood, Fox News, 13 June 2023
• One of the busiest bridges over that gulf has been detonated and may take time to rebuild.
  — Paul J. Hastings, STAT, 22 Mar. 2023
• Serber used the angle of the window frame on the wall to calculate the height at which the bomb detonated.
  — Kelsey Atherton, Vulture, 26 July 2023
• The bombs fell wide and failed to detonate, and Ms. Dugdale and Mr. Gallagher went into hiding to plot their next move.
  — Clay Risen, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
• In this case, the explosives failed to detonate, and there were no reports of injuries.
  — Gordon Lubold, WSJ, 5 Nov. 2023
• The core then failed to detonate in a Type Ia supernova.
  — Lyndie Chiou, Quanta Magazine, 8 Feb. 2023
• The winner will leave the island with a lifetime pension; if there is more than one survivor, the collars will detonate.
  — Simon Parkin, The New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2023
• The drone dropped back to earth — a nerve-racking moment, as the explosive was already triggered to detonate.
  — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 8 May 2023
• Then, right before our eyes, Mount Arawang appears to detonate.
  — John Vaillant, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2023
• The charge failed to detonate, and the devices landed without causing injury.
  — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 20 Mar. 2024
• The latter was killed in a St. Petersburg cafe when a bomb hidden in a statuette award was detonated.
  — Brady Knox, Washington Examiner, 6 Nov. 2023
• Most were equipped with triggers on their noses — three small rubber balls on springs — to detonate high explosives.
  — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
• And for the first time, Russia is making heavy use of drones, many of them bought from Iran, that dive into their targets and detonate their warheads on impact.
  — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2022
• It was filled halfway with black powder and detonated using a time fuse.
  — Aaron Katersky, ABC News, 7 Mar. 2023
• Once a flight goes off its planned trajectory, the risk begins to increase quickly and controllers tend to be quick to detonate.
  — Eric MacK, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023
• At that point, two women (Grace Matthews and Taylor Morris) enter the frame and detonate a bomb that blows the car containing the two superstars to smithereens.
  — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 20 Dec. 2023
• In some cases, some bomblets do not detonate on impact and can explode later.
  — Ken Tran, USA TODAY, 9 July 2023
• The bomb had 20 sticks of dynamite and a booster but luckily failed to detonate, possibly due to faulty wiring.
  — Journal Sentinel, 17 Jan. 2024
• The official said propellant had sparked a fire but the missile’s warhead did not detonate.
  — Ellen Francis, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2022
• The group approached the platform by sea and attached explosives which were then detonated.
  — Tim Lister and Victoria Butenko, CNN, 14 Feb. 2024
• Before the day was over, police would detonate explosives on the Panthers’ roof and call in a tank for reinforcements.
  — Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2022
• Robison was stationed in the parking lot and used a remote control device to detonate the bomb.
  — Richard Ruelas, The Arizona Republic, 11 Feb. 2023
• Jimmy Villavicencio was 4 years old when the bomb detonated near his home in Oscura, a railroad camp to the east.
  — Karin Brulliard, Samuel Gilbert, Anchorage Daily News, 31 July 2023
• Behind this meet-cute lies an ugly truth that could detonate at any time — and Kim warns viewers to brace accordingly.
  — Dan Snierson, EW.com, 19 Feb. 2023
• While no weapons detonated as a result of the crash, two of the four that fell to the ground were damaged, releasing radioactive plutonium.
  — Tara Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Mar. 2024
• Despite its daring premise and provocative title, the film won’t teach you the mechanics of making or detonating a bomb.
  — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Apr. 2023
• In the Season 1 finale, Hal was caught in an explosion when a car bomb detonated outside a restaurant in London.
  — Amy MacKelden, Harper's BAZAAR, 28 Apr. 2023

Last Updated: 3 May 2024