dynamite
Americannoun
-
a high explosive, originally consisting of nitroglycerin mixed with an absorbent substance, now with ammonium nitrate usually replacing the nitroglycerin.
-
any person or thing having a spectacular effect.
verb (used with object)
-
dynamites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dynamited,
past participle, past
-
dynamiting
present participle
-
to blow up, shatter, or destroy with dynamite.
Saboteurs dynamited the dam.
-
to mine or charge with dynamite.
adjective
noun
-
an explosive consisting of nitroglycerine or ammonium nitrate mixed with kieselguhr, sawdust, or wood pulp
-
informal a spectacular or potentially dangerous person or thing
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dynamitesimple
-
dynamitessimple
-
have dynamitedperfect
-
has dynamitedperfect
-
am dynamitingprogressive
-
are dynamitingprogressive
-
is dynamitingprogressive
-
have been dynamitingperfect progressive
-
has been dynamitingperfect progressive
Past
-
dynamitedsimple
-
had dynamitedperfect
-
was dynamitingprogressive
-
were dynamitingprogressive
-
had been dynamitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dynamite
From Swedish dynamit, introduced by Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( def. ), its inventor in 1867; see dynam-, -ite 1
Explanation
Dynamite is a material that explodes when it's detonated. Dynamite has long been used in mining, for blasting open layers of rock. Dynamite is not the kind of thing you buy at the corner hardware store. Dynamite was invented in 1867 by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor, chemist, and engineer. Builders and miners were happy about the new explosive, since dynamite was stronger and safer than those that came before it. Nobel named his invention dynamit, a Swedish version of the Greek dynamis, "power." The earliest figurative meaning was "dangerous," but in the 1960s it came to also mean "excellent" or "impressive."
Vocabulary lists containing dynamite
Civil Engineering
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Engineering - Middle School
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for September 3–September 9, 2022
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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.
See Examples For:
“Sorcerer” is about a group of fugitives driving a load of dynamite across the jungle; “The Weight” follows a group of Depression-era convicts transferring gold through the forest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
"It's a dynamite show and a dynamite piece of writing," says Wybrow, whose mother also lived with memory problems at the end of her life.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Among their backers was a third Nobel brother, Alfred, already well on his way to immense wealth after patenting dynamite in 1867.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Soldiers cordoned off the area before using dynamite to blast the first ruined building apart -- a 12-story residential tower that had partially collapsed and was slanting toward the street.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Every piece of dynamite in his body told him to run to Deerfield, where Tyler lived.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
Corinne Bailey Rae dynamites her own musical past and embraces a larger historical one on her new album, “Black Rainbows.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
The girl in the case is also a bandit—except that she wrecks trains of thought and dynamites dams along the canons of true love instead of bothering with the Union Pacific and the Shoshone.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hartmann explains it this way: "The seizure just kind of dynamites the depression out of my brain somehow."
From Time Magazine Archive
With gelatine dynamites a firm tamping may be used, but with ordinary dynamite loose sand is better.
From Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise by P. Gerald (Percy Gerald) Sanford
The ordinary dynamites used in mining are about four times as powerful as gunpowder.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various
As a young man, by his account, he smuggled diamonds, oversaw coconut plantations, dynamited fish, captained schooners and hunted killer cannibals in the New Guinea jungle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
The French Revolution then dynamited Europe’s old order and dynamized society as a collective organism, evolving in a “quasi-biological and determinate way.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
But Benjamin Chim had his fields dynamited and turned into a quarry for materials for the railroad.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2023
The Germans also dynamited the dam years later as they retreated after repairing the Soviet damage.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
On May 11, 1906, the wrecking company dynamited the wheel, for scrap.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
In his summation to jurors, prosecutor Joseph Ford essentially blamed Darrow for the dynamiting of The Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2024
However, Macron’s 2017 dynamiting of a post-war political landscape dominated by the two mainstream parties on the centre-right and centre-left created a void for populists to fill, analysts say.
From Reuters ● Apr. 6, 2022
Celtic have struggled against teams who sit in and hoover up space while dynamiting those who try to play more freely.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2022
A piece by Sun cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher, which showed a caricature of Schmoke dynamiting the Block only for little Blocks to spring up all over the city, made a big impression.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2022
The work was backbreaking: digging out boulders, chopping down trees, dynamiting tunnels, and hammering in railroad ties.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
