How to Use detonate in a Sentence

detonate

verb
  • The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
  • Lamb kebab is soft bites of ground meat that detonate with jalapeño.
    — Washington Post, 14 Aug. 2020
  • The bombs did not detonate and no one was injured.
    — Julia Bonavita, FOXNews.com, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Then a flash-bang grenade detonated in a burst of white in a front room.
    — Bart Jansen, USA Today, 29 Apr. 2025
  • One of them was found with a cellphone that may have been meant to detonate it.
    — Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, 23 Feb. 2021
  • One of them was found with a cellphone that may have been meant to detonate it.
    — Anna Giaritelli, Washington Examiner, 8 Jan. 2021
  • One method of attack is to detonate on contact with the side of the hull.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 16 Nov. 2022
  • Over the course of the last month, a total of four bombs have detonated.
    — Peter Dawson, star-telegram, 19 Mar. 2018
  • The bomb squads were detonating more fireworks to try to make the area safe.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2025
  • In these songs, noise is a means to detonate all conceptions of self.
    — Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 8 Dec. 2020
  • What’s a fore-end and how does a firing pin detonate a cartridge?
    — Andrew McKean, Outdoor Life, 2 Oct. 2020
  • Once on board, the plotters would combine the two and detonate a bomb.
    — CNN, 26 Aug. 2021
  • One of the busiest bridges over that gulf has been detonated and may take time to rebuild.
    — Paul J. Hastings, STAT, 22 Mar. 2023
  • The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs.
    — Brian Flood, Fox News, 13 June 2023
  • The explosives did not detonate and no one was hurt.
    — Natalie Neysa Alund, USA Today, 5 Dec. 2025
  • Since dogs can be heavy enough to detonate mines, some instead use rats that have been trained to do the same thing.
    — The Economist, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The device did not detonate, and no one was injured.
    — New York Times, 10 Apr. 2026
  • The bombs failed to detonate and nobody was injured.
    — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Joséphine’s carriage had just reached the palace gate when the bomb detonated.
    — National Geographic, 20 Dec. 2019
  • The result is a pair of charm bombs detonating on both sides of a cardboard cutout.
    — Inkoo Kang, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2020
  • That allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin to detonate the primer.
    — CBS News, 16 Aug. 2022
  • That allowed the hammer to fall and the firing pin to detonate the primer.
    — Susan Montoya Bryan, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Neusch detonated the two drop-drones on the balcony.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 26 June 2026
  • That bridge has been burned, detonated, destroyed, nuked, lasered to death.
    — Mark Harris Outkick, FOXNews.com, 29 Apr. 2026
  • The drone snagged on the netting, then detonated.
    — Ken Harbaugh, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Trump said two women were found there wearing suicide vests that did not detonate but were killed on the scene.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 28 Oct. 2019
  • But once in a rare while, the frame detonates into history.
    — Christopher Anderson, Vanity Fair, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Both devices failed to detonate.
    — Michael Ruiz , Greg Wehner , Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 14 Mar. 2026
  • Bottom sea mines are placed on the seabed and designed to detonate when a ship passes nearby.
    — Amira El-Fekki‎, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 June 2025
  • One bomb was thrown, but never detonated.
    — Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 10 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detonate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: