(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a big explosion, especially one caused by a bomb.
250 people were killed in the ~.
N-COUNT
2.
If something is ~ed into a particular place or state, an explosion causes it to be in that place or state. If a hole is ~ed in something, it is created by an explosion.
...a terrible accident in which his left arm was ~ed off by some kind of a bomb...
The explosion which followed ~ed out the external supporting wall of her flat.
VERB: be V-ed prep/adv, V n with adv, also V n adj, V n prep
3.
If workers are ~ing rock, they are using explosives to make holes in it or destroy it, for example so that a road or tunnel can be built.
Their work was taken up with boring and ~ing rock with gelignite...
They’re using dynamite to ~ away rocks to put a road in.
VERB: V n, V n with adv, also V
~ing
Three miles away there was a salvo of ~ing in the quarry.
N-UNCOUNT
4.
To ~ someone means to shoot them with a gun. (JOURNALISM)
...a son who ~ed his father to death after a life-time of bullying...
Alan Barnett, 28, was ~ed with a sawn-off shotgun in Oldham on Thursday.
VERB: V n to n, be V-ed with n
•
Blast is also a noun.
...the man who killed Nigel Davies with a shotgun ~.
N-COUNT
5.
If someone ~s their way somewhere, they get there by shooting at people or causing an explosion.
The police were reported to have ~ed their way into the house using explosives...
One armoured column attempted to ~ a path through a barricade of buses and trucks.
VERB: V way prep/adv, V n prep/adv
6.
If something ~s water or air somewhere, it sends out a sudden, powerful stream of it.
A blizzard was ~ing great drifts of snow across the lake.
VERB: V n prep/adv
•
Blast is also a noun.
Blasts of cold air swept down from the mountains.
N-COUNT: usu N of n
7.
If you ~ something such as a car horn, or if it ~s, it makes a sudden, loud sound. If something ~s music, or music ~s, the music is very loud.
...drivers who do not ~ their horns...
The sound of western music ~ed as she entered.
VERB: V n, V
•
Blast is also a noun.
The buzzer suddenly responded in a long ~ of sound.
N-COUNT: usu N of n
8.
If something such as a radio or a heater is on full ~, or on at full ~, it is producing as much sound or power as it is able to.
In many of those homes the television is on full ~ 24 hours a day...
PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR