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.

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

   2002, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror

   2 more examples

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

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

   […] 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, […]

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

2. mediaA symbol similar to an asterisk, but with additional rays: ✺.
3. astronomyA region of space with an unusually high rate of star formation.
4. astronomyA 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.

present singular third person starbursts · participle present starbursting · participle past starbursted · past starbursted

1. astronomyTo 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.

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

   1998, Graham Joyce, The Tooth Fairy