bomb

1 of 2

noun

1
a
: an explosive device fused to detonate under specified conditions
b
: atomic bomb
also : nuclear weapons in general
usually used with the
2
: a vessel for compressed gases: such as
a
: a pressure vessel for conducting chemical experiments
b
: a container for an aerosol (such as an insecticide) : spray can
3
: a rounded mass of lava exploded from a volcano
4
: a lead-lined container for radioactive material
5
: failure, flop
the play was a bomb
6
British : a large sum of money
7
a
British : a great success : hit
b
slang : one that is striking or extraordinary
used with the
their new album is the bomb
8
a
: a long pass in football
b
: a very long shot (as in basketball)
shooting 3-point bombs
also : home run
9
: something unexpected and unpleasant
often used with drop
dropped a bomb with her resignation

bomb

2 of 2

verb

bombed; bombing; bombs

transitive verb

1
: to attack with or as if with bombs : bombard
The planes successfully bombed their target.
a bombed village
2
a
: to defeat decisively
b
baseball : to score many runs against (a pitcher)
Allen tried a new slider pitch without success and was bombed in Cincinnati.Jack Lang
3
: to hit (a ball, puck, or shot) very hard
bomb a home run
bomb a long drive down the fairway
4
slang : to fail (a test)
I bombed my history exam.

intransitive verb

1
informal : to fall flat : to fail completely
The movie bombed at the box office.
a joke that bombed
2
informal : to move rapidly
a car bombing down the hill
bombing noun
The city was subjected to heavy bombing during the war.
suicide bombings

Examples of bomb in a Sentence

Noun A bomb went off downtown. Many bombs were dropped on the city during the war. They hid a bomb in the building. countries that have the bomb Verb The city was heavily bombed during the war. The planes flew 200 miles to bomb their target. The movie bombed at the box office. The play bombed on Broadway. He bombed at his first performance. I completely bombed my math exam. A car was bombing down the highway. teenagers bombing around in a convertible
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
He was assassinated in 1989, killed by a roadside bomb. Marta Balaga, Variety, 19 Mar. 2024 Butler Middle School in Waukesha experienced a series of bomb and school shooting threats over the span of a week following a social media post from a popular right-wing account, Libs of TikTok, that was critical of a principal's 2022 social media post. Drake Bentley, Journal Sentinel, 18 Mar. 2024 Yes, the painting evokes a specific historical event: a Basque town razed by German bombs. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 Cincinnati Distilling: Bar opens at noon, 203 Mill St., Milford. Cobblestone OTR Cobblestone OTR will celebrate St. Patrick's Day with green beer, Guinness and bombs. Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 15 Mar. 2024 The threat warned that if the state attorney general didn’t resign within two days, a bomb would go off in her office, according to court records. Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, 13 Mar. 2024 Related article Soldiers and civilians fear what comes next as Russia gains momentum in eastern Ukraine The Russian planes dispatching these bombs are not invulnerable. Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, 10 Mar. 2024 The crisis recently prompted security officials in Michoacán to form a specialized unit tasked with disposing of bombs. Keegan Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2024 Similarly, a study published in 2022 found that CTE was rare in deceased military personnel who'd experienced TBIs or been exposed to bomb blasts. Jon Hamilton, NPR, 8 Mar. 2024
Verb
But my home has never been bombed, members of my family have never been ripped from me in the early hours of the morning, or dismembered before my eyes, and no one has ever pointed a deadly weapon at me. Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 In the room at The Beverly Hilton, where comedian Jo Koy was bombing in front of stars like Taylor Swift and Ben Affleck, the audience seemed both delighted and relieved by a joke that wasn’t on them. Rebecca Keegan, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2024 The booms were, of course, the Israeli army bombing Gaza, part of a campaign that has left at least 30,000 civilians and combatants dead so far. Phil Klay, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2024 Israel began bombing Gaza, killing, to date, more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. Daniel Estrin, NPR, 24 Feb. 2024 Frank continued to get upset (and a little drunk) every August 6, the day Hiroshima was bombed. Kc Cole, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024 Related Articles Letters: Nation’s divisions | Tiresome claim | Campaign justified | The real race | Global funding | Ensure access Denying human rights to West Bank residents for decades helped Israel take the next step in dehumanization, indiscriminately bombing Gazans. Steve Koppman, The Mercury News, 7 Mar. 2024 He was bombed in two starts at Triple A Jacksonville last year, allowed 15 runs and 15 hits in 8 ⅔ innings. Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 7 Mar. 2024 And later on, our exchange offices and data centers got bombed one by one. Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR, 3 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bomb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from Spanish or Italian bomba or French bombe, all probably in part from an onomatopoeic base bomb- (as in Greek bómbos "booming, humming," Old Norse bumba "drum," Lithuanian bambėti "to mutter, mumble," Albanian bumbullin "it is thundering"), in part back-formation from Medieval Latin bombardus or Middle French bombarde bombard entry 1

Note: The origin and transmission of bomba, bombe, etc., in the sense "explosive device, projectile, etc.," among European languages is not certain. Bomba is attested earliest in Spanish, appearing several times in the second half of the 16th century (canto 18 of La Araucana of Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, the Descripción general de África of Luis del Mármol, the Historia de las cosas … del Gran Reyno de la China of Juan González de Mendoza). Mendoza's book (1585) is the source of an early and aberrant instance of bomb in English: his bombas de fuego is rendered as "bomes of fire" in Robert Parke's translation (The Historie of the Great and Mightie Kingdome of China, London, 1588, p. 65). Bomba is recorded as Italian in Antoine Oudin's Italian-French dictionary (Recherches italiennes et françoises, Paris, 1640), where it is glossed "bombe, ou balon de feu" ("bomb, or ball of fire"), though it is not recorded in an Italian text until 1686 (Paolo Segneri, Il cristiano instruito, Florence, p. 327); Oudin's gloss also apparently constitutes the first record in French. Significantly earlier than any of these is Latin bombus, which occurs twice in the Commentarii, an account of the exploits of the condottiere Jacopo Piccinino in 1452-53 by the Neapolitan humanist Giannantonio de' Pandone, "il Porcellio" (ca. 1405-85); Pandone's bombus appears to be some sort of exploding projectile ("Hic Tibertus Dux bombi fulmine in ulna sauciatur" - "Here Tibertus [the condottiere Tiberto Brandolini] was wounded in the forearm by the flash of a bombus"); the 18th-century lexicographer Du Cange, in Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis, glosses bombus in this passage, alluding to French bombe, as pila incendiaria, "fireball." Spanish bomba in the sense "pump," attested from the early 16th century, is probably an independent formation; cf. pump entry 1.

Verb

derivative of bomb entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1662, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1688, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of bomb was in 1662

Dictionary Entries Near bomb

Cite this Entry

“Bomb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bomb. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

bomb

1 of 2 noun
1
a
: an explosive device that has a fuse and is designed to go off under any of various conditions
b
: atomic bomb
also : nuclear weapons in general
usually used with the
2
: a container in which a substance (as an insecticide) is stored under pressure and from which it is released in a fine spray
3

bomb

2 of 2 verb
1
: to attack with bombs
2
: to fail completely

More from Merriam-Webster on bomb

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