carpet bomb

See also: carpet-bomb

English

Alternative forms

• carpet-bomb

Verb

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

1. To bomb an area in such a manner that the ordnance covers the entire area without gaps.

   The infantry were destroyed after the enemy carpet bombed the ground they were occupying.

   • 2008, Conrad Jones, Soft Target: Tank. II‎^[1], page 237:

     Russian bombers were carpet bombing the ridge directly above them, in a vain attempt to kill the Mujahideen fighters that plagued their operations on the ground.

   • 2010, Ken Welch, Tiger Hound: How We Won the War & Lost the Country‎^[2], page 52:

     Vietnamese Air Force continued to carpet bomb any base areas that we found to be lucrative targets at the time.

   • 2015, Ram Puniyani, Deconstructing Terrorist Violence: Faith as a Mask‎^[3]:

     Post World War II (WW II), terrorism against the people acquired a new dimension when America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and later carpet bombed Vietnam with Napalm.

Derived terms

• carpet bombing

Translations

bombing an entire area

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地毯式轟炸 / 地毯式轰炸 (dìtǎnshì hōngzhà)

• Finnish: mattopommittaa
• Russian: подве́ргнуть ковровой бомбардировке (podvérgnutʹ kovrovoj bombardirovke)

Noun

carpet bomb (plural carpet bombs)

1. A bomb used in a carpet bombing.
   • 2007, Services Marketing: Text And Cases‎^[4]:

     This multiplicity of outlets work like carpet bombs that leave very little empty space for competition to be comfortable.

   • 2009, William Ayers, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Antiwar Activist‎^[5]:

     There was a whole new lexicon to learn: cluster bombs, fragmentation bombs, carpet bombs, napalm bombs, phosphorous bombs with their delicate spidery fingers stretching in all directions.

   • 2010, William Little, The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future‎^[6]:

     What he really means is that the psychics' powers under test functioned more like a carpet bomb than a precision missile.

2. A bombing of this kind.
   • 2004, Keats Hanson, James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing: Prima's Official Strategy Guide:

     This underground arena features switches that trigger lasers, and a carpet bomb of the entire lower and upper levels.

   • 2007, Doug Green, No Wife No Kids No Plan‎^[7]:

     I watched in awe as the pans and glasses exploded halfway across the lawn, erupting from the tarp like a simulated war scenario where the plan of attack was a carpet bomb initiated from the sky.

   • 2014, Jerald Ford, When I Am King‎^[8], volume 2, page 290:

     They were probably afraid that we would bury them in another carpet bomb of expletives.

Translations

a bombing of this kind — see carpet bombing