cluster bomb
8
6.7
- noun
- /ˈklʌstər bɑm/
- Specialized
:
bomba de racimo
- The use of cluster bombs has raised serious concerns among human rights organizations due to their impact on civilian populations.
Examples
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On one street in Nis, fifteen residents were killed by cluster bombs.
Academic text (2000) -
Most of the world's nations have banned land mines and cluster bombs, even though the United States has refused to join them.
Academic text (2011) -
South African viewers learned about how cluster bombs worked.
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I think cluster bombs and landmines are the most recent examples.
Academic text (2016) -
And we could see over time that if you trace US Air Force use of cluster bombs from Kosovo to Afghanistan and ultimately to Iraq, they changed.
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The most deadly of these strikes was in all Majala US cruise missiles dropped cluster bombs on a Bedouin camp.
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American aircraft attacked the fleeing forces with cluster bombs, napalm, and depleted uranium shells on the Jahra-Basra road at Mitla Ridge.
Academic text (2002) -
In April 1978, Israeli napalm and cluster bombs arrived in Massawa, while in Asmara, 600 Soviet and Cuban advisers, pilots, and engineers prepared for the offensive.
Academic text (1990) -
During the war, the military deployed cluster bombs that released smaller explosives over a wide area.
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In military training, soldiers learned about the dangers of cluster bombs and their unpredictable explosion patterns.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'cluster' (a set of similar items positioned closely) with 'bomb' (an explosive device): it denotes a bomb that contains and releases multiple smaller explosives. This compositional, literal relation is predictable and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Cluster bomb comes from the image of one big bomb that breaks open and scatters a cluster of 'small bombs' over a 'wide area'. That's why the term means a weapon that spreads many explosives and can be especially dangerous to people nearby.