The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - explode v.

1) blow up, burst, blast, fly apart, go off, erupt, fulminate; set off, detonate: Police exploded the bomb after clearing the area. Rockets exploded in the night sky. 2) reject, discredit, refute, repudiate, disprove, debunk, belie, give the lie to, Slang pick holes in, poke or shoot full of holes: Ptolemy's geocentric theory has been thoroughly exploded. 3) lose one's temper, rant, rave, rage, storm, throw a tantrum, Colloq get into a tizzy, blow one's top, fly off the handle, go through or hit the roof, hit the ceiling; Slang lose one's cool, go up the wall, US blow one's stack or cool, flip (one's lid) , freak out: He exploded when he learned his car had been smashed up.