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
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 Inside the city Russia was hurling up to 80 to 100 glide bombs, known by the acronym KAB, every day. Oleksandr Chubko Lynsey Addario, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024 My closest friend has lost 14 family members on her mother’s side and awakens each morning in terror, imagining hearing bombs and seeing her dead relatives beside her in rubble. Doris Bittar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Mar. 2024 So what is the point of a smart bomb that only affects decent human beings, not people who are evil. Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 Feb. 2024 The cat gets close to try the flesh; a bomb pounds the street. Mosab Abu Toha, The New York Review of Books, 29 Feb. 2024 Unbeknownst to Jary, the unexploded German bomb had been buried in her garden since World War II. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024 The Pantex facility completed its last new bomb in 1991 and has dismantled thousands since. Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Feb. 2024 Late last year it was reported that Israel was using AI software to decide where to drop bombs in Gaza. Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 27 Feb. 2024
Verb
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 This bakery was bombed and other bakeries have been damaged. NBC News, 28 Feb. 2024 In the dark hours, Ukraine’s Baba Yaga night-drones bomb the Russian assembly points and seed the roads with mines. David Axe, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 At least half the homes where the refugees took shelter were bombed. Marc Santora Tyler Hicks, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2024 Seriously, who wants to shoot at or bomb their best customers? John Tamny, Forbes, 26 Feb. 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 19 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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