starburst

English

Etymology

star +‎ burst

Noun

starburst (plural starbursts)

1. A violent explosion, or the pattern (likened to the shape of a star) supposed to be made by such an explosion.
   • 2002, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror:

     […] his arm striking brick and the bottle shattering in a starburst of black […]

   • 2003, Tim Cockey, Murder in the Hearse Degree: A Novel:

     A starburst of red exploded on his chest and he flew backward a good six or seven feet.

   • 2004, Elizabeth George, Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life:

     […] and another that creates a cicatrix starburst from her right eye to her temple. This scar is the result of an accident when she was ten years old, […]

2. (typography) A symbol similar to an asterisk, but with additional rays: ✺.
3. (astronomy) A region of space with an unusually high rate of star formation.
4. (astronomy) A period in time during which a region of space experiences an unusually high rate of star formation.

   The Milky Way will see a starburst in approximately 200,000,000 years.

Derived terms

• starburst display
• starburst galaxy

Translations

Translations

• French: flambée d’étoiles f

Verb

starburst (third-person singular simple present starbursts, present participle starbursting, simple past and past participle starbursted)

1. (astronomy, of a region of space) To experience an unusually high rate of star formation.
2. To explode; to burst out violently via, or in such a manner as to cause, an explosion.
3. To make a starburst pattern.
   • 1998, Graham Joyce, The Tooth Fairy:

     The faint light from the sky starbursted on a tear. Suddenly there was something appallingly human about her.