Forms: 6 bome, 7 bombe, bombo, boom(b, 7– bomb. [a. F. bombe, ad. Sp. bomba (see first quot.), prob. f. bombo ‘a bumming or humming noise’:—L. bombus. The word is thus ultimately identical with boom. Cf. the earliest Eng. instance bome, directly from Sp.; also 17th c. bombo from Sp. or It. Variously pronounced: see the rhymes: in the British army (bvm) is usual.]
† 1. Transl. of Sp. bomba de fuego ‘a ball of wilde-fire,’ Minsheu. Obs.
1588. R. Parke, Hist. China (transl. fr. Span.), 65. They vse … in their wars … many bomes of fire, full of olde iron, and arrowes made with powder & fire worke, with the which they do much harme and destroy their enimies.
2. An explosive projectile consisting of a hollow iron sphere filled with gunpowder or some other charge, and fired by a fuse ignited in the act of discharge from the mortar; a bombshell; now generally called a shell.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1937/2. They shoot their Bombes near two Miles, and they weigh 250 English Pounds a piece.
1687. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 275. I saw a trial of those devilish, murdering, mischief-doing engines called bombs, shot out of the mortar-piece on Blackheath.
1687. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, II. 196. The Turks threw … quantities of Bomboes and Stink-pots.
1692. Siege Lymerick, 5. 800 Carts of Ball and Boombs. Ibid., 6,600 Booms.
a. 1721. Prior, Alma, III. 369. The longitude uncertain roams, In spite of Whiston and his bombs.
c. 1730. Young, Sea-Piece, ix. Poems (1757), I. 246.
| A thousand deaths the bursting bomb | |
| Hurls from her disembowel’d womb. |
1829. Southey, Yng. Dragon, IV. The hugest brazen mortar That ever yet fired bomb, Could not have check’d this fiendish beast As did that Holy Thumb.
b. Whale-fishery. A harpoon with an explosive charge in its head; hence darting-, rocket-bomb.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 199. The bomb-lance, darting-bomb, and rocket-bomb.
† 3. A mortar, a shell-gun. Obs. rare–1.
1684. J. Peter, Siege Vienna, 95. The Enemy in the mean time play’d on us with their Cannon and Bombs more fiercely than before.
† 4. A small war-vessel carrying mortars for throwing bombs. Called more fully bomb-galliot, bomb-ketch, bomb-ship, bomb-vessel, and bombard.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4029/3. Portsmouth Bomb. Ibid., No. 3992/3. Her Majesty’s Ships the Mortar and Terror Bombs.
1747. J. Lind, Lett. Navy, i. (1757), 21. One [degree of captain] is of those who have the command of sloops, bombs, fireships, or any ship less than one of twenty guns.
1806. Duncan, Nelson, 45. He proceeded with the Thunder bomb … to bombard the town.
1813. Examiner, 18 Jan., 47/1. 18 sloops—4 bombs.
5. Volcanic bomb: a roundish mass of lava thrown out of a volcano.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xxi. (1852), 493. I noticed volcanic bombs, that is, masses of lava which have been shot through the air whilst fluid and have consequently assumed a spherical or pear-shape.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 193. Sometimes the masses of lava … fall as … volcanic bombs.
6. Comb., as bomb-battery, -bed, -cart, -chest, -galliot, -quay, -ship, -vessel; bomb-battered adj.; bomb-lance, a harpoon with an explosive in its head. See also BOMB-KETCH, BOMB-PROOF, BOMB-SHELL.
1854. J. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. xxxiv. 533. Having fled from their *bomb-battered and burning dwellings.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3124/2. This day the *Bomb-Battery was begun.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 100. The beams which support the *bomb-bed in bomb-vessels.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 4970/2. Two *Bomb Carts … and five Pieces of Ordnance.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 377. Bomb-carts, filled with necessaries for the camp, were likewise sent.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., *Bomb-chest, is a kind of chest, which being filled with Gunpowder and Bombs … is placed under Ground to blow it up into the Air, together with those that stand upon it.
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5301/2. Some *Bomb Galliots.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), II. lxiv. 210. The entertainers landed at the *bomb-keys.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3086/2. Having been to view the *Bomb ships in the Maese.
1806. Duncan, Nelson, 136. The bomb-ship and schooner gun-vessels made their escape.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2893/4. *Bomb vessels lately Launch’d.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (article), Bomb-Vessels.
