*omb*

‖ [ F., shaded enamel. ] (Fine Arts) An art or process of flooding transparent colored glaze over designs stamped or molded on earthenware or porcelain. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F., lit. perpendicularity; &unr_; to + plomb lead. See Plumb. ] Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a bomb of great power in which the explosive energy is derived from the nuclear fission of a fissionable material, such as plutonium or uranium-235. It is a type of nuclear weapon. The strength of an atom bomb is measured in kilotons, i.e. the equivalent energy released by explosion of a thousand tons of TNT. The first atomic bomb was manufactured in 1945.
Syn. -- A-bomb, fission bomb. [ PJC ]

. [ Written also beach-comber or beach comber. ] (Naut.) 1. A vagrant seaman, usually of low character, who loiters about seaports, particularly on the shores and islands of the Pacific Ocean. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

I was fortunate enough, however, to forgather with a Scotchman who was a beach-comber. F. T. Bullen. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. a vagrant living on a beach. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. a person who searches along a beach for objects of value, such as lost objects or seashells. [ PJC ]

A long, curling wave rolling in from the ocean. See Comber. [ Amer., archaic ] [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

v. i. [ Cf. Boom. ] To sound; to boom; to make a humming or buzzing sound. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombe bombshell, fr. L. bombus a humming or buzzing noise, Gr. &unr_;. ] [ 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 ]

v. t. To bombard. [ Obs. ] Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a natural family of tropical trees with large dry or fleshy fruit containing usually woolly seeds.
Syn. -- family Bombacaceae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OF. ] Cotton; padding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombarde, LL. bombarda, fr. L. bombus + -ard. Cf. Bumper, and see Bomb. ] 1. (Gun.) A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon. [ 1913 Webster ]

They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses. Knolles. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A bombardment. [ Poetic & R. ] J. Barlow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A large drinking vessel or can, or a leather bottle, for carrying liquor or beer. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. Padded breeches. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombard phrase, inflated language; bombast. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. bombarde, fr. F. bombarde. ] (Mus.) See Bombardo. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bombarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Bombarding. ] To attack with bombards or with artillery; especially, to throw shells, hot shot, etc., at or into. [ 1913 Webster ]

Next, she means to bombard Naples. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

His fleet bombarded and burnt down Dieppe. Wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombardier. ] (Mil.) (a) One who used or managed a bombard; an artilleryman; a gunner. [ Archaic ] (b) A noncommissioned officer in the British artillery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombardier beetle (Zool.), a kind of beetle (Brachinus crepitans), so called because, when disturbed, it makes an explosive discharge of a pungent and acrid vapor from its anal glands. The name is applied to other related species, as the Brachinus displosor, which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The common American species is Brachinus fumans. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who carried liquor or beer in a can or bombard. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They . . . made room for a bombardman that brought bouge for a country lady. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombardement. ] An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ ‖ } n. [ It. bombardo. ] (Mus.) Originally, a deep-toned instrument of the oboe or bassoon family; thence, a bass reed stop on the organ. The name bombardon is now given to a brass instrument, the lowest of the saxhorns, in tone resembling the ophicleide. Grove. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Bombazine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. bombace cotton, LL. bombax cotton, bombasium a doublet of cotton; hence, padding, wadding, fustian. See Bombazine. ] 1. Originally, cotton, or cotton wool. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A candle with a wick of bombast. Lupton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Cotton, or any soft, fibrous material, used as stuffing for garments; stuffing; padding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

How now, my sweet creature of bombast! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Doublets, stuffed with four, five, or six pounds of bombast at least. Stubbes. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Fig.: High-sounding words; an inflated style; language above the dignity of the occasion; fustian. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet noisy bombast carefully avoid. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. High-sounding; inflated; big without meaning; magniloquent; bombastic. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ He ] evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor a tall metaphor in bombast way. Cowley. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To swell or fill out; to pad; to inflate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not bombasted with words vain ticklish ears to feed. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated. -- Bom*bas"tic*al*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

A theatrical, bombastic, windy phraseology. Burke. [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Turgid; tumid; pompous; grandiloquent. [1913 Webster]

n. Swelling words without much meaning; bombastic language; fustian. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bombastry and buffoonery, by nature lofty and light, soar highest of all. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ LL., cotton. See Bombast, n. ] (Bot.) A genus of trees, called also the silkcotton tree; also, a tree of the genus Bombax. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. Bombazine. ] A sort of thin woolen cloth. It is of various colors, and may be plain or twilled. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. bombasin, LL. bombacinium, bambacinium, L. bombycinus silken, bombycinum a silk or cotton texture, fr. bombyx silk, silkworm, Gr. &unr_;. Cf. Bombast, Bombycinous. ] A twilled fabric for dresses, of which the warp is silk, and the weft worsted. Black bombazine has been much used for mourning garments. [ Sometimes spelt bombasin, and bombasine. ] Tomlinson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a type of calorimeter made of a steel body which closes tightly and resists high pressure, designed for measuring the amount of heat developed durng chemical combustion of a quantity of combustible material in an oxygen atmosphere. [ PJC ]

n. 1. a military aircraft that drops bombs during flight. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. a large sandwich on a long crusty roll that is split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the US.
Syn. -- grinder, hero, hero sandwich, hoagie, hoagy, Cuban sandwich, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, submarine, submarine sandwich, torpedo, wedge, zep. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. a person who drops bombs or plants and explodes bombs, especially surreptitously. [ PJC ]

4. a bomber jacket. [ PJC ]

n. [ From its resemblance to the style of jacket work by the crews of World War II bomber airplanes. ] a short men's jacket made of leather, having a zipper in front, knitted cuffs, and ribbed trim. [ PJC ]

a. [ L. bombyx silk, silkworm: cf. F. bombique. ] Pertaining to, or obtained from, the silkworm; as, bombic acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ LL. bombilare, for L. bombitare. See Bomb, n. ] To hum; to buzz. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A humming sound; a booming. [ 1913 Webster ]

To . . . silence the bombilation of guns. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To hum; to boom. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A humming or buzzing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Bomboloes [ Cf. It bombola a pitcher. ] A thin spheroidal glass retort or flask, used in the sublimation of camphor. [ Written also bumbelo, and bumbolo. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Secure against the explosive force of bombs. -- n. A structure which heavy shot and shell will not penetrate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A bomb. See Bomb, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. something or someone that stuns or amazes, especially suddenly and unexpectedly; as, the news of the president's affair was a political bombshell; a blonde bombshell. [ PJC ]

n. 1. a sighting device in an aircraft for aiming bombs. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. bumblebees.
Syn. -- genus Bombus. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. (Zool.) Like or pertaining to the genus Bombyx, or the family Bombycidæ. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. waxwings.
Syn. -- genus Bombycilla. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ L. bombycinus. See Bombazine. ] 1. Silken; made of silk. [ Obs. ] Coles. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Being of the color of the silkworm; transparent with a yellow tint. E. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a natural family of dipterous insects comprising the bee flies.
Syn. -- family Bombyliidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ L. bombylius a bumblebee, Gr. bombylio`s. ] Buzzing, like a bumblebee; as, the bombylious noise of the horse fly. [ Obs. ] Derham. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., silkworm. See Bombazine. ] (Zool.) A genus of moths, which includes the silkworm moth. See Silkworm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A scaraboid beetle; esp. the Typhæus vulgaris of Europe. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Buncombe a county of North Carolina. ] Speech-making for the gratification of constituents, or to gain public applause; flattering talk for a selfish purpose; anything said for mere show. [ Cant or Slang, U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

All that flourish about right of search was bunkum -- all that brag about hanging your Canada sheriff was bunkum . . . slavery speeches are all bunkum. Haliburton. [ 1913 Webster ]

To speak for Buncombe, to speak for mere show, or popularly. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ “The phrase originated near the close of the debate on the famous ‘Missouri Question, ' in the 16th Congress. It was then used by Felix Walker -- a naïve old mountaineer, who resided at Waynesville, in Haywood, the most western country of North Carolina, near the border of the adjacent county of Buncombe, which formed part of his district. The old man rose to speak, while the house was impatiently calling for the ‘Question, ' and several members gathered round him, begging him to desist. He persevered, however, for a while, declaring that the people of his district expected it, and that he was bound to ‘make a speech for Buncombe.'” W. Darlington. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. A subfamily of plants, in some classifications considered as an independent family of water lilies; it comprises the genera Cabomba and Brasenia.
Syn. -- subfamily Cabombaceae, water-shield family. [ WordNet 1.5 ]