bomb
Forms
- Plural
- bombs
- present (v1)
- bomb
- past (v2)
- bombed
- past participle (v3)
- bombed
- present participle
- bombing
- 3rd person singular
- bombs
Definitions
1.An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- During the Cold War, everyone worried about the bomb sometimes.
- The size of the ground hole crater from the blast indicates it was a bomb.
- "The hard Brexiteers have built a bomb under the UK automotive industry and the EU have lit it," they said.
2.Any explosive charge.(colloquial)
- The mineworkers are setting their bombs.
3.A bag or balloon containing a substance such as water, flour, or paint, designed to burst and splatter.
- Activists threw paint bombs at the famous artwork.
- The children are playing with water bombs in the garden.
4.Anything that is at risk of exploding (literally) or that has exploded.(colloquial)
- That turkey fryer is a bomb waiting to go off.
- The gas leak tragically turned the house into a bomb.
1.To jump into water in a squatting position, with the arms wrapped around the legs, in order to maximise the resulting splash.(informal)
2.To add an excessive amount of chlorine to a pool when it has not been maintained properly.(informal)
3.To move at high speed.(informal)
- I was bombing down the road on my motorbike.
4.To attack using one or more bombs; to bombard.
- 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.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2100
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
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.