to bomb out
- phrasal verb
- /bɑm aʊt/
- Most of the homes in the area were bombed out.
I mean, a lot of cities were bombed out over across multiple countries.
- I mean, a lot of cities were bombed out over across multiple countries.
Examples
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I mean, a lot of cities were bombed out over across multiple countries.
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After the airstrike, many families were left bombed out and homeless, forced to seek shelter in nearby towns.
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The civil war left the once-vibrant city bombed out, with only ruins standing where homes used to be.
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As they walked through the bombed out neighborhoods, it was hard to imagine that families once lived in those houses.
Synonyms
To attack a place by dropping explosive devices from planes
To destroy something completely, often using a nuclear bomb
To completely destroy a building or area so nothing is left
To attack a place by throwing a bomb that starts fires
To blow up something using a strong explosive used to break rock
To attack a wide area from the air by dropping many bombs
To attack a place with a thick burning liquid from bombs or flamethrowers
To attack a place suddenly and heavily, often by bombing from planes
How Destroyed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense is partly compositional: 'bomb' (to attack with bombs) combined with the particle 'out' conveys thorough destruction or rendering a place uninhabitable, so learners can infer a meaning related to being destroyed by bombing. However, the specific nuance of 'making someone homeless' or the idiomatic use 'bombed out' meaning 'reduced to ruins/empty' is an extended consequence that may not be fully predictable without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The verb bomb out comes from war: when a house was hit by bombs it was destroyed and no longer usable, so people had to leave and were 'homeless'. So, bomb out means 'to make someone homeless by destroying their home with bombs'.