bomb / bäm/ • n. 1. a container filled with explosive, incendiary material, smoke, gas, or other destructive substance, designed to explode on impact or when detonated by a time mechanism, remote-control device, or lit fuse. ∎  an explosive device fitted into a specified object: a package bomb. See also car bomb, letter bomb. ∎  (the bomb) nuclear weapons considered collectively as agents of mass destruction: she joined the fight against the bomb. ∎  a small pressurized container that sprays liquid, foam, or gas: an aerosol bomb.2. a thing resembling a bomb in impact, in particular: ∎  (also volcanic bomb) a lump of lava thrown out by a volcano. ∎ inf. a movie, play, or other event that fails badly: that bomb of an old movie. ∎  a long forward pass or hit in a ball game: a big 40-yard bomb down the middle to tight end Howard Cross. ∎  an old car.3. inf. (da (or the) bomb) an outstandingly good person or thing: the site would really be da bomb if its content were updated more frequently. 4. inf. a marijuana cigarette.• v. 1. [tr.] attack (a place or vehicle) with a bomb or bombs: London was bombed, night after night| [as n.] (bombing) a series of bombings. 2. [intr.] inf. (of a movie, play, or other event) fail miserably: a big-budget movie that bombed at the box office.ORIGIN: late 17th cent.: from French bombe, from Italian bomba, probably from Latin bombus ‘booming, humming,’ from Greek bombos, of imitative origin.

Bomb

BOMB. Albert Manucy explains that "the word 'bomb' comes to us from the French, who derived it from the Latin…. Today bomb is pronounced 'balm,' but in the early days it was commonly pronounced 'bum.'" The modern equivalent of an eighteenth-century bomb is a high explosive (chemical energy) shell. "A bombshell was simply a hollow, cast-iron sphere. It had a single hole where the powder was funneled in, full, but not enough to pack too tightly when the fuse was driven in…. Bombs were not filled with powder very long before use, and fuses were not put into the projectile until the time of firing" (Manucy, pp. 65-67).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manucy, Albert. Artillery Through the Ages: A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America. National Park Service Interpretative Series, History No. 3. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office for the National Park Service, 1949.

bomb sb. XVII. — F. bombe — It. bomba, prob. f. L. bombus — Gr. bómbos booming, humming, of imit. orig.
Hence (or — F.) bomb vb. XVII. So bombard early kind of cannon XVI. — F. bombarde, medL. bombarda bombard vb. XV. — F. bombarder; hence bombardment XVIII. bombardier †artilleryman XVI; N.C.O. of artillery XIX. — F.

bomb See VOLCANIC BOMB; and VOLCANO.