burst into (some place)

To force entry into some place, often a building. I had to burst into the house because I didn't have my key, and no one else was home! They called the police as soon as they heard someone burst into the gallery. I'm sorry, but I had to burst into the house—I didn't have my key, and no one else was home!

See also: burst

burst into (something)

1. Of a plant, to bloom. I can't wait for the flowers I planted to burst into blossom and fill our yard with color! Plants don't burst into bloom on my watch, sadly—I only kill them. Just you wait, our hydrangea usually bursts into gorgeous purple flowers by early July.

2. To develop or erupt suddenly into a particular state or activity. My mother was fine this morning, but she burst into tears at the funeral. The phone began to overheat, and its battery burst into flames. I was mortified when the boys burst into laughter in the middle of the church service.

See also: burst

burst into

1. Also, burst out in or into . Break out into sudden activity. For example, burst into flames means "break out in a fire," as in This dry woodpile may well burst into flames. A version of this term, which dates from the 16th century, was used figuratively by John Milton: "Fame is the spur ... But the fair guerdon [reward] when we hope to find, and think to burst out into sudden blaze" ( Lycidas, 1637).

2. Also, burst out. Give sudden utterance to. For example, burst into tears or laughter or song or speech or burst out crying or laughing or singing , etc. mean "begin suddenly to weep, laugh, sing," and so on, as in When she saw him, she burst into tears, or I burst out laughing when I saw their outfits, or When they brought in the cake, we all burst into song. These terms have been so used since the late 1300s.

See also: burst

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

burst into

1. To enter some place suddenly and forcefully: The police burst into the room and conducted a raid.

2. To start doing something suddenly: Sometimes we burst into song while we're hiking in the mountains.

See also: burst

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References in classic literature

And the crowd burst into a laugh, especially the boys and young girls.

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Instead of answering, he burst into a fit of laughter--loud, coarse, hard laughter, so utterly unlike any sound I had ever yet heard issue from his lips, so strangely and shockingly foreign to his character as I understood it, that I stood still on the sands and openly remonstrated with him.

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"Mother!" Tess went across to Joan Durbeyfield, laid her face upon the matron's bosom, and burst into sobs.

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At length the old hound burst into view with muzzle to the ground, and snapping the air as if possessed, and ran directly to the rock; but, spying the dead fox, she suddenly ceased her hounding as if struck dumb with amazement, and walked round and round him in silence; and one by one her pups arrived, and, like their mother, were sobered into silence by the mystery.

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Unwilling to lose his filberts, and yet unable to withdraw his hand, he burst into tears and bitterly lamented his disappointment.

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So saying, Aglaya burst into bitter tears, and, hiding her face in her handkerchief, sank back into a chair.

She, too, glanced at the prince's panic-stricken countenance, then rushed at her sister, threw her arms round her neck, and burst into as merry a fit of laughter as Aglaya's own.

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When a destination receives a burst through its burst-mode receiver, it disassembles the burst into individual native data units upon conversion to electronic domain and then forwards them to appropriate clients.

An accurate loss model for a star optical burst-switched network

"On burst day, the replacement pipe is drained, the pulling head is fused on and burst into place.

Pre-chlorinated bursting: cost effectiveness on a large scale

Some of the tropical trees there burst into astonishing reds, though not all at the same time or for the same reason as each other.

Why turn red? The autumn leaf is toast, but it still redecorates

Once the tool burst into the receiving pit, the crew pulled the nose of the tool above the water with the backhoe, loosened the new pipe from the bursting head and pulled the Hammerhead Mole and its bursting head, up and out of the receiving pit.

Dade County rates pipe bursting performance

Spectacular explosions in which heavy atomic nuclei spontaneously burst into neutrons and protons have long puzzled scientists.

Lead blocks may catch nuclear killer