chain-react

American

[cheyn-ree-akt] / ˈtʃeɪn riˌækt /

verb (used without object)

to undergo or produce a chain reaction.

Riots chain-reacted from one area to another in the city.

chain-react British

verb

(intr) to undergo a chain reaction

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In an age of geographical compression wrought by globalization, one great crisis can chain-react with another in a different part of the globe: the Far East, for example.

From Washington Post

It was a great temptation for me to partially withdraw the final cadmium strip and to be the first to make a pile chain-react.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023