outburst
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a sudden, strong expression of a feeling like anger, sadness, or excitement.
a sudden and often uncontrolled expression of strong emotion, typically directed at others.
Simple“He later apologised for his angry outburst during the staff meeting.”
In context“The witness's emotional outburst in the courtroom forced the judge to call for a brief recess to restore order.”
Antonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
a sudden increase in activity or energy.
a sudden, brief period of intense activity or energy release.
Simple“The sun produced a massive outburst of energy that affected satellite signals.”
In context“Astronomers monitored the stellar outburst, noting the significant increase in luminosity over a period of just forty-eight hours.”
“From Earth or space, total solar eclipses provide opportunities to study the corona and the energetic outbursts released by the sun.”
Inherited from Middle English outbersten, outbresten. Cognate with Dutch uitbarsten (“to erupt; burst out”), German ausbersten (“to burst out; erupt”). By surface analysis, out- + burst.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.