deflagrate

American  

[def-luh-greyt] / ˈdɛf ləˌgreɪt /

verb (used with or without object)

deflagrated, deflagrating

1. to burn, especially suddenly and violently.

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deflagrate British  

/ ˈdɛfləˌɡreɪt, ˈdiː- /

verb

1. to burn or cause to burn with great heat and light

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Other Word Forms

• deflagrability
  noun
• deflagration
  noun
• deflagrable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of deflagrate

1720–30; < Latin dēflagrātus (past participle of dēflagrāre to burn down), equivalent to dē- de- + flagr ( āre ) to burn + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deflagrate deflagrated deflagrating

"We set out yesterday to deflagrate that item in order to limit the blast affects and we achieved that successfully."

From BBC ● May 1, 2026

"We're going to try our hardest to deflagrate that item and burn it inside of a structure that will limit the damage to the local surroundings," he said.

From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026

Finally, if the amount of picric acid be still further increased under these conditions, it will undergo partial decomposition and volatilise, but will not even deflagrate.

From Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise by Sanford, P. Gerald (Percy Gerald)

They are usually made of short slips of metal foil or wire, which melt or deflagrate when the current is too strong, and thus interrupt the circuit.

From The Story of Electricity by Munro, John

The current induced in the secondary wire of a coil by the discharge of the condenser through the primary, was also sufficiently intense to deflagrate wires of considerable length and thickness.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 275, April 9, 1881 by Various

Mr de la Place and I deflagrated a convenient quantity of nitre and charcoal in an ice apparatus, and found that twelve pounds of ice were melted by the deflagration of one pound of nitre.

From Elements of Chemistry, In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries by Lavoisier, Antoine

"The germ of the first knowledge of an explosive was probably the accidental discovery, ages ago, of the deflagrating property of the natural saltpeter when in contact with incandescent charcoal."

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 288, July 9, 1881 by Various