bomb

bomb1 [ bam ] noun ***

1. ) count a weapon made to explode at a particular time or when it hits something:

Bombs fell on the city every night for two weeks.

plant a bomb: The bomb had been planted in a busy street.

a ) only before noun relating to or caused by a bomb:

a bomb attack

a bomb blast/explosion

2. ) count AMERICAN a container in which insect poison is kept under pressure:

a flea bomb (=used for killing fleas)

3. ) the bomb or the Bomb OLD-FASHIONED nuclear weapons, considered as a group

be the bomb AMERICAN SPOKEN

to be someone or something that you like very much. This expression is used by young people.

look like a bomb has hit it INFORMAL

to look very messy:

Your bedroom looks like a bomb has hit it!

bomb

bomb 2 [ bam ] verb **

1. ) transitive to attack a place with a bomb:

NATO aircraft bombed the town again last night.

The railroad station was bombed by terrorists.

be heavily/badly bombed: This whole area was heavily bombed during the conflict.

2. ) bomb or bomb out intransitive INFORMAL to be very unsuccessful:

The movie bombed at the box office (=not many people went to see it).

a ) intransitive or transitive INFORMAL to fail a test very badly:

I bombed my geography quiz.

3. ) intransitive bomb along/up/down BRITISH INFORMAL to move somewhere very quickly, especially in a vehicle

,bomb `out phrasal verb intransitive INFORMAL

same as BOMB 2 2

be bombed out (of something)

to be forced to leave a place because of being attacked by bombs:

Half the town was bombed out of their homes in the raid.

,bomb `out of phrasal verb transitive AMERICAN INFORMAL

bomb out of something to have to leave something such as a competition because you have failed badly or been easily defeated:

After only six months, the company bombed out of the computer software business.