a. and sb. [f. L. type *explōsīv-us, f. explōdĕre to EXPLODE: see -IVE. Cf. F. explosif, -ive.]
A. adj.
1. Tending to drive something forth with violence and noise.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 601. Upon which Elastick, or Explosive power he establish’s his whole Doctrine of Convulsions.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. (1723), 157. A kind of Natural Gunpowder, which taking fire … occasions … that subterranean Thunder … and by the Assistance of its Explosive Power, renders the Shock much greater.
1755. in Johnson.
1860. C. G. Williams, in Ure, Dict. Arts (ed. 5), s.v. Gunpowder, The explosive force will be less than it should be.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., viii. 219. But the opening once made, the subsequent efforts were explosive.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. i. § 15 (1879), 17. An expulsion of the offending particle by an explosive cough.
2. Driven forth or produced by explosion.
1735. Thomson, Liberty, I. 312. From the red Abyss New Hills, explosive, thrown.
b. Of a consonant-sound: Produced by an explosion of breath; stopped.
1854. Bushnan, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), I. 289/1. The explosive consonants, b, d, g, p, t, and k.
1879. W. H. Stone, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 459/2. Alternating the linguo-dental explosive T with another explosive consonant produced differently.
3. Tending to explode or ‘go off’ with a loud noise; tending to cause explosion.
1796. Burke, Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. VIII. 60. Democratick, explosive, insurrectionary nitre.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 397. Towards the end it [air] approached to the explosive kind.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxix. 149. Miss Ophelia sat for a moment, as if she had swallowed some explosive mixture, and were ready to burst.
1884. Sir E. J. Reed, in Contemp. Rev., Nov., 617. A limited use of explosive-shell-fire from mortars had been made in the navy.
fig. 1865. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VIII. lxiv. 101. The nobles … might have nursed an explosive spirit of discontent.
4. Of or pertaining to an explosion; of the nature of an explosion.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., liii. He entertained them … with some comic passage or other … so that explosive laughs were constantly issuing from the side-board.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxx. 411. Breaking it [the ice] up with an explosive puff.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 761. Gun-cotton has about three times the explosive rapidity of gunpowder.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 109. They combine with explosive violence, if exposed to sunshine.
B. sb.
1. An explosive letter or consonant (see A. 2 b); = EXPLODENT.
1878. [see A. 2 b].
1883. I. Taylor, Alphabet, II. viii. § 2. 144, note. The law of least effort requires that the vowel should precede continuants and follow the explosives.
2. An explosive agent or compound. (See A. 3.)
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 818/1 s.v., M. Berthelot gives … a table showing the relative force of explosives.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., s.v., The principal explosives used in mining are gunpowder … nitroglycerin [etc.].
attrib. 1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 7 April, 7/1. The New Explosives Bill.
