Brewer's: Bomb

A shell filled with gunpowder. (Greek, bombos; Latin, bombus, any deep noise. Thus Festus says:

“Bombus, sonus non apium tantum, aut poculi bilbientis, sed etiam tonitrŝ.” And Catullus applies it to the blast of a trumpet, “efflabant cornua bombis,” lxiv. 263.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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