Deflagrate

Word of the Day for Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Deflagrate \DEF-luh-greyt\, verb:

To burn, especially suddenly and violently.

Then the split second realisation that something was very, very wrong, as the electricity rushed down the thin wires, sending a spark across a gap in the blasting cap, detonating the cap and sending the shock wave into the explosive charge, causing it to deflagrate at blinding speed, quicker than the mind could imagine.
-- John F. Mullins, Into the Treeline

Whereas Marcel finds disappointment in his return's incapacity to deflagrate, to 'flame up' his memory, Sassoon savours a kind of immediacy when he reaches the Rectory at Edingthorpe...
-- Robert Hemmings, Modern Nostalgia

Deflagrate is derived from the Latin root flagrāre meaning "to burn." The common prefix de- can denote intensity, as well as removal. 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com