bombing 1 of 2

noun

as in bombardment

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bombing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of bomb
1
as in flooding
to attack with a rapid or overwhelming outpouring of many things at once following the reporter's obscene outburst, viewers bombed the television station with an unprecedented number of complaints

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2
as in flying
slang to proceed or move quickly skiers bombing down the slope vied for the coveted gold medal

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in collapsing
to be unsuccessful the chichi restaurant bombed big-time, lasting only six months

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in burying
to defeat by a large margin it's no surprise that the inexperienced baseball team got totally bombed in its first game

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5
as in attacking
to use bombs or artillery against the enemy has bombed the city again

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bombing
Noun
Cloud-seeding resumed over Kalimantan on Sunday, with 30 helicopters for water-bombing and aerial patrol missions, and another 22 helicopters covering Sumatra. — ABC News, 23 Aug. 2026 Monaco’s Police Commissioner Eric Arella told CNN 250 police officers were mobilized within hours of the bombing. — Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 20 Aug. 2026 The bombing of churchgoers in their own house of worship shocked the world. — Jason Wollschleger, The Conversation, 19 Aug. 2026 The economic pressure follows the intense bombing campaign that targeted industrial and civilian infrastructure in addition to military targets. — David Rising, Fortune, 19 Aug. 2026 The physicians profiled in the doc risked their lives to perform emergency surgeries on children who had been gravely injured in shelling, bombing, and other attacks by the Israel Defense Forces. — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 18 Aug. 2026 In Iraq, the United States inflicted a dozen years of punishing sanctions, intermittent bombing, and failed regime change and counterproliferation efforts, followed by the disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation, all at tremendous human cost. — Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026 Harkness’s men hunt down people who could connect him to a decades-old MI5 secret and the shopping center bombing. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Aug. 2026 The beavers were undisturbed by a half dozen osprey dive-bombing for their evening meal. — Carl R. Gold, Baltimore Sun, 14 Aug. 2026
Verb
The status of its nuclear program, degraded by bombing strikes in 2025, hasn't changed. — Susan Page, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026 Prabowo vowed the government would continue supporting firefighting operations, including through the deployment of additional water-bombing helicopters and oxygen supplies for firefighters. — ABC News, 24 Aug. 2026 For decades, advocates of bombing Iran argued that such an attack might be messy but would ultimately remove the Iranian threat. — Marc Lynch, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026 In 2003, Libya formally took responsibility for bombing Pan Am 103. — Keith Langston, PEOPLE, 30 July 2026 The meeting came after nearly two weeks of the United States bombing Iran, with Tehran striking back against allies in the region, including a hit on a military base in Jordan that killed three American service members. — Jonathan Lemire, The Atlantic, 28 July 2026 When America and Israel started bombing Iran, our military bombed an elementary school, killing more than 160 children. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 19 July 2026 French officials condemned the damage to the ancient monastery, comparing it to bombing Notre-Dame, while Ukrainian religious leaders called it a crime against humanity. — Mark Temnycky, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026 After bombing out of its home event in Sydney, Slingsby and company dominated the Americas across the past three events in Rio de Janeiro, Bermuda and New York. — Andrew Rice, New York Times, 22 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bombing
  1. bombardment
  2. flooding
  3. flying
  4. collapsing
  5. burying
  6. attacking
  7. assault
  8. bombarding
Noun
  • None of the works address the recent bombardments directly, although the precarious context of ongoing threat, instability and struggle can be felt in almost all of them.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2026
  • In one recent bombardment of Kyiv, Ukraine’s defences failed to intercept a single missile; 17 people were killed.
    — Harriet Marsden, TheWeek, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of bombardment
Verb
  • But with so many inexperienced agents flooding the industry, finding one who’s actually good has become a game of roulette.
    — Michael Waters, The Atlantic, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Too early to tell, but the Viceroy name will, no doubt, bring Americans, who are already flooding into Portugal for vacation and often, to settle.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of flooding
Verb
  • But their life as flying animals is short, lasting a few weeks or months.
    — Olga R. Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Bringing your own electrolytes Hydration is always a problem when flying.
    — Carin Ryan, Travel + Leisure, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of flying
Verb
  • She’d previously been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition that can be brought on by overexertion, after collapsing from lower-body cramping and temporary leg paralysis during a 2025 playoff series against the Las Vegas Aces.
    — Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2026
  • One that is visibly collapsing under the weight of its scared cows.
    — Aparna Rae, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of collapsing
Verb
  • The 19-year-old left-hander could not get out of the first inning, burying low Single-A Lake Elsinore early in a 21-2 loss to visiting San José.
    — Jeff Sanders, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Without adequate reinforcement, shifting ground can cause tunnels to collapse suddenly, burying miners within seconds.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of burying
Verb
  • Piker then fired back at Scholten on social media, accusing her of seeking attention and attacking him over his opposition to Zionism.
    — Rena Rowe, The Washington Examiner, 24 Aug. 2026
  • Binu Palal showed video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson.
    — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of attacking
Noun
  • He has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, the department said.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the January 14 shooting of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of assault
Verb
  • Data centers are shifting from the training of AI models — a stage that involves bombarding them with data — to a phase known as inference.
    — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 24 Aug. 2026
  • That was left to the local alternative outlets, who'd start bombarding everyone at our paper to find out who was let go.
    — Sean Joseph OutKick, FOXNews.com, 29 July 2026
Definition of bombarding

Browse Nearby Words

bombers
bombing
bombings
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Cite this Entry

“Bombing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bombing. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

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