bomb out

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

bomb out (third-person singular simple present bombs out, present participle bombing out, simple past and past participle bombed out)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To fail; to produce no or very poor results; to drop out of or be eliminated from a competition.
   • 1966 Aug. 30, "Survivors Gird for New Season," Los Angeles Times, part IV p. 1 (retrieved 17 July 2011):

     The excitement along TV row this time of year generally is confined to the new season's shows—how many will hit or how many will bomb out?

   • 1979 August 2, “Jane Fonda bombs out in the political arena”, in Deseret News, USA, retrieved 17 July 2011, page 3A:

     Jane Fonda may be a hit at the box office, but she is bombing out politically.

   • 2009 December 2, Mninawa Ntloko, “Parreira's Loyalty is to Brazil”, in allAfrica.com, retrieved 17 July 2011:

     Brazil started as favourites and as luck would have it, they bombed out in the quarterfinals.

2. (transitive) To remove or cause (someone) to be removed or ejected from something.
3. (transitive, slang) To destroy completely or kill with explosives.
4. (intransitive, slang) To do badly on a test or examination.

References

• “bomb out”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.