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Burst vs Billow - What's the difference?

burst | billow |

As nouns the difference between burst and billow

is that burst is an instance of, or the act of bursting while billow is a large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound.

As verbs the difference between burst and billow

is that burst is to break from internal pressure while billow is to surge or roll in billows.

burst

English

(wikipedia burst)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An instance of, or the act of bursting .
    • The bursts of the bombs could be heard miles away.
  • A series of shots fired from an automatic firearm.

    • Derived terms

    * cloudburst

    Verb

  • To break from internal pressure.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • To cause to break from internal pressure.
  • (obsolete) To cause to break by any means.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You will not pay for the glasses you have burst ?
  • * Fairfax
    • He burst his lance against the sand below.
  • To separate formfeed at perforation lines.
  • To enter or exit hurriedly and unexpectedly.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
    • He entered Maromme shouting for the people of the inn, burst open the door with a thrust of his shoulder, made for a sack of oats, emptied a bottle of sweet cider into the manger, and again mounted his nag, whose feet struck fire as it dashed along.
  • * 1913 , (Mariano Azuela), The Underdogs, translated by E. MunguÍa, Jr.
    • Like hungry dogs who have sniffed their meat, the mob bursts in, trampling down the women who sought to bar the entrance with their bodies.
  • To produce as an effect of bursting.
    • to burst a hole through the wall

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "burst")

    Derived terms

    * burst forth * burst into flame * burst out * burst someone's bubble

    Related terms

    * bust

    billow

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
  • * Cowper
    • whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll
  • * 18?? , :
    • And the brooklet has found the billow / Though they flowed so far apart.
  • * 1922 , :
    • Have the swirling sands engulfed them, on a noon of storm when the desert rose like the sea, and rolled its tawny billows on the walled gardens of the green and fragrant lands?

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To surge or roll in billows
  • * 1920 , , The Understanding Heart , Chapter II:
    • During the preceding afternoon a heavy North Pacific fog had blown in … Scudding eastward from the ocean, it had crept up and over the redwood-studded crests of the Coast Range mountains,
  • To swell out or bulge

    • References