bomb
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɒm/
ipa: /bɑm/
ipa: /bʌm/
ipa: /bɔm/
rhymes: -ɒm
homophone: balm (father-bother merger)
homophone: BOM
Forms: form: bombs
form: bombing
form: bombed
form: bombed
Etymology: From French bombe, from Italian bomba, from Latin bombus (“a booming sound”), from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos, “booming, humming, buzzing”), imitative of the sound itself. Doublet of bombe. Compare boom.
Senses: examples: text: 2000, Canadian Peace Research Institute, Canadian Peace Research and Education Association, Peace Research, Volumes 32-33, page 65,
15 May: US jets bombed air-defence sites north of Mosul, as the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the US and Britain of intentionally bombing civilian targets. (AP)
text: Italy had bombed cities in the Ethiopian war; Italy and Germany had bombed civilians in the Spanish Civil War; at the start of World War II German planes dropped bombs on Rotterdam in Holland, Coventry in England, and elsewhere.
ref: 2005, Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, page 421:
text: Essendon was bombed in the early hours of 3 September 1916; a few houses and part of the church were destroyed, and two sisters killed.
ref: 2007, David Parker, Hertfordshire Children in War and Peace, 1914-1939, page 59:
text: Dr. Ngo: Did you ever find out where the smugglers were smuggling from?
ref: 2022 September 9, HarryBlank, “The Mausoleum at Ipperwash”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 27 May 2024:
glosses: To attack using one or more bombs; to bombard.
examples: text: School days have been missed or cut short many times to accommodate soccer travel through the years, but this return felt different. Photos posted on his social media documenting the experience were seen by classmates, many of whom bombed him with questions about his future in the sport.
ref: 2022 May 7, Ray Brewer, “Henderson native takes another step toward his soccer dreams with spot on Lights' roster”, in Las Vegas Sun:
glosses: To attack using one or more bombs; to bombard.
To attack or annoy in the manner of a bombing.
raw_tags: with with
glosses: To jump into water in a squatting position, with the arms wrapped around the legs, in order to maximise the resulting splash.
glosses: To add an excessive amount of chlorine to a pool when it has not been maintained properly.
examples: text: I was bombing down the road on my motorbike.
qualifier: down; up etc.; down; up etc.
glosses: To move at high speed.
raw_tags: with along
examples: text: The calendar was selling Moctezuma beer, so I had one of them in her honor while Murray bombed himself with the mezcal.
ref: 1985, Pete Hamill, Dirty Laundry, page 97:
text: TED: The champagne you ordered, sir.
MAN: No time for this. Leave it on ice.
WIFE: But I want some now...
MAN: There'll be plenty for you at the party, baby, you can bomb yourself all you want at the party.
ref: 1995, Four Rooms (film)
glosses: To make oneself drunk.
examples: text: It is often used to collect other writer's tags, and future plans for bombing and piecing.
ref: 2009, Scape Martinez, GRAFF: The Art & Technique of Graffiti, page 124:
glosses: To cover an area in many graffiti tags.
examples: text: I totally bombed that exam.
text: The nondiscrimination measures bombed at the polls, losing 18 percent to 82 percent. One gay activist in the city told GCN, "We got whupped."
ref: 1985 February 2, Sue Hyde, “Houston Gay Rights Squashed in Referendum”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 1:
text: So Hall quit the job, turned in the company car and went to Chicago, where as a stand-up comic he bombed several times before he was discovered by Nancy Wilson, who took him on the road — where he bombed again before a room of Republicans—and then to Los Angeles.
ref: 1992 June, Lynn Norment, “Arsenio Hall: Claiming the Late-night Crown”, in Ebony, page 74:
text: 2000, Carmen Infantino, Jon B. Cooke (interviewer), The Carmen Infantino Interview, in Jon B. Cooke, Neal Adams, Comic Book Artist Collection, page 12,
Carmen: […] Then it bombed and it bombed badly. After a few more issues I asked Mike what was happening and he said, “I′m trying everything I can but it′s just not working.” So I took him off the book and he left. That was it.
text: She was the reason why he bombed the interview. He just couldn′t seem to get her out of his mind.
ref: 2008, Erik Sternberger, The Long and Winding Road, page 62:
glosses: To fail dismally.
examples: text: When things weren't going Alison's way at work — some editor wanted something changed or her computer bombed again — she'd cuss and yell at whoever happened to be in the way.
ref: 2001, Janet Holm McHenry, Girlfriend Gatherings: Creative Ways to Stay Connected, page 28:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To crash.
synonyms: blow up
glosses: To make a smelly mess in (a toilet).
examples: text: What over-charged piece of melancholie / Is this, breakes in betweene my wishes thus, / With bombing sighs?
ref: 1625, Ben Jonson, The Fortunate Isles and Their Union:
glosses: To sound; to boom; to make a humming or buzzing sound.
glosses: Synonym of parachute (“wrap illicit drugs in a covering before swallowing them”).
synonyms: word: parachute
extra: wrap illicit drugs in a covering before swallowing them
Derived terms: bomber
bomb off
bomb out
dive-bomb
divebomb
unbombed
Zoombomb
Zoombombing