estallar

From metathesis of older *astellar, from astilla (“splinter”).

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: es‧ta‧llar

estallar (first-person singular present estallo, first-person singular preterite estallé, past participle estallado)

1. (intransitive) to explode, to blow up, to burst

   Synonym: reventar

   estallar en llamas ― to burst into flames

   estallar en carcajadas ― to burst into laughter

   • 1983, “Vamos a la playa”, performed by Righeira:

     Vamos a la playa, la bomba estalló / Las radiaciónes tuestan y matizan de azul

     Let's go to the beach, the bomb exploded / The radiation tans and tints everything with blue

2. (intransitive) to crack (a whip)
3. (intransitive, figurative) to break out, erupt (said of a revolution, a war, a fire, etc.)
   • 2021 December 7, Silvia Ayuso, “La violencia en el primer mitin del ultra Éric Zemmour enturbia la campaña electoral francesa”, in El País‎:

     No había acabado Éric Zemmour de arremeter contra los inmigrantes, el islam y hasta la prensa en su primer mitin de campaña, el domingo, cuando la violencia estalló entre las últimas filas de la gigantesca sala del parque de exposiciones de Villepinte, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. (intransitive) to break loose
5. (intransitive) to blow up, to blow one's top, to explode
6. (transitive) to pop (e.g., a bubble, a balloon, a button, a question)
7. (transitive) to blow up, to set off, to make explode (hacer + estallar)

• “estallar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28