Meaning

noun the act of exploding or bursting

noun rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms

noun a sudden flurry of activity (often for no obvious reason)

originFrom Middle English bresten, bersten, from Old English berstan, from Proto-West Germanic *brestan, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”), enlargement of *bʰreHi- (“to snip, split”). See also West Frisian boarste, Dutch barsten, Danish briste, Swedish brista; also Irish bris (“to break”)). More at brine. Also cognate to debris.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0