bomb out

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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, slang) To destroy completely or kill with explosives.

• “bomb out”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.