[syn: fail, flunk, bomb, flush it]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bomb \Bomb\, v. t.
To bombard. [Obs.] --Prior.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bomb \Bomb\, v. i. [Cf. Boom.]
To sound; to boom; to make a humming or buzzing sound. [Obs.]
--B. Jonson.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bomb \Bomb\, n. [F. bombe bombshell, fr. L. bombus a humming or
buzzing noise, Gr. ?.]
[1913 Webster]
1. A great noise; a hollow sound. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
A pillar of iron . . . which if you had struck,
would make . . . a great bomb in the chamber
beneath. --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Mil.) A shell; esp. a spherical shell, like those fired
from mortars. See Shell.
[1913 Webster]
3. A bomb ketch.
[1913 Webster]
Bomb chest (Mil.), a chest filled with bombs, or only with
gunpowder, placed under ground, to cause destruction by
its explosion.
Bomb ketch, Bomb vessel (Naut.), a small ketch or vessel,
very strongly built, on which mortars are mounted to be
used in naval bombardments; -- called also mortar
vessel.
Bomb lance, a lance or harpoon with an explosive head, used
in whale fishing.
Volcanic bomb, a mass of lava of a spherical or pear shape.
"I noticed volcanic bombs." --Darwin.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
bomb
n 1: an explosive device fused to explode under specific
conditions
2: strong sealed vessel for measuring heat of combustion [syn:
bomb calorimeter, bomb]
3: an event that fails badly or is totally ineffectual; "the
first experiment was a real turkey"; "the meeting was a dud
as far as new business was concerned" [syn: turkey, bomb,
dud]
v 1: throw bombs at or attack with bombs; "The Americans bombed
Dresden" [syn: bombard, bomb]
2: fail to get a passing grade; "She studied hard but failed
nevertheless"; "Did I fail the test?" [syn: fail, flunk,
bomb, flush it] [ant: make it, pass]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
220 Moby Thesaurus words for "bomb":
A-bomb, Grand Guignol, H-bomb, Passion play, Tom show, aerial bomb,
antimasque, antipersonnel bomb, astonishment, atom-bomb,
atomic bomb, audience success, ballet, batter, be a gas, be a hit,
bill, blast, blitz, blockbuster, blow, blow to pieces, blow up,
bombard, bombshell, broadcast drama, burlesque show, bust,
cannonade, carcass, catch, charade, cliff hanger, closet drama,
comedy drama, concussion grenade, crap out, critical success,
daytime serial, depth bomb, depth charge, dialogue, dive-bomb,
documentary drama, drama, dramalogue, dramatic play,
dramatic series, dramatize, draw a blank, drop a bomb,
drop the ball, dud, dull thud, duodrama, duologue, earthshaker,
epic theater, experimental theater, explosive, extravaganza,
eye-opener, fail, failure, fall flat, fan, feature, fire bomb,
fireball, fizzle, flat failure, flop, floperoo, flummox, fold,
fold up, frost, fusion bomb, gas grenade, gasser, get left,
giveaway, glide-bomb, grenade, hand grenade, happening, headline,
hit, hit show, hydrobomb, hydrogen bomb, improvisational drama,
incendiary, incendiary bomb, incendiary grenade, infernal machine,
joker, kicker, lay an egg, legitimate drama, lemon, lose out,
loser, make a hit, masque, melodrama, melodramatize, mine,
minstrel show, miracle, miracle play, monodrama, monologue,
morality, morality play, mount, music drama, musical revue,
mystery, mystery play, not hack it, not make it, open, open a show,
opera, pageant, panel show, pantomime, pastoral, pastoral drama,
peripeteia, petard, piece, pipe bomb, play, playlet,
plutonium bomb, premiere, present, preview, problem play, produce,
psychodrama, put on, quiz show, radio drama, razon bomb,
revelation, review, revue, robot bomb, roc, rocket bomb,
satchel charge, scenarize, sensational play, serial, set the stage,
shell, shocker, show, sitcom, situation comedy, sketch, skip-bomb,
skit, smoke bomb, soap, soap opera, sociodrama, spectacle, spring,
stage, stage play, stage show, staggerer, star, startler,
stench bomb, stink bomb, straight drama, strike out, succeed,
success, surprisal, surprise, surprise ending, surprise package,
surprise party, suspense drama, switch, tableau, tableau vivant,
take the count, talk show, tear-gas bomb, tear-gas grenade,
teleplay, television drama, television play, theater of cruelty,
theatricalize, thermonuclear bomb, thunderbolt, thunderclap,
time bomb, total loss, total theater, try out, turkey,
variety show, vaudeville, vaudeville show, vehicle, wall grenade,
washout, wear thin, whiff, word-of-mouth success, work
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
bomb
1. v. General synonym for crash (sense 1) except that it is not used as a
noun; esp. used of software or OS failures. ?Don't run Empire with less
than 32K stack, it'll bomb.?
2. n.,v. Atari ST and Macintosh equivalents of a Unix panic or Amiga guru
meditation, in which icons of little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds
are displayed, indicating that the system has died. On the Mac, this may be
accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally hexadecimal) number indicating
what went wrong, similar to the Amiga guru meditation number. MS-DOS
machines tend to get locked up in this situation.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
bomb
1. General synonym for crash except that it is
not used as a noun. Especially used of software or OS
failures. "Don't run Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll
bomb".
2. Atari ST and Macintosh equivalents
of a Unix "panic" or Amiga guru, in which icons of
little black-powder bombs or mushroom clouds are displayed,
indicating that the system has died. On the Macintosh, this
may be accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally
hexadecimal) number indicating what went wrong, similar to
the Amiga guru meditation number. MS-DOS computers tend
to lock up in this situation.
3. A piece of code embedded in a program that
remains dormant until it is triggered. Logic bombs are
triggered by an event whereas time bombs are triggered either
after a set amount of time has elapsed, or when a specific
date is reached.
[Jargon File]
(1996-12-08)