bomb out

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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 Aug. 2, "Jane Fonda bombs out in the political arena," Deseret News, p, 3A (USA) (retrieved 17 July 2011):

     Jane Fonda may be a hit at the box office, but she is bombing out politically.

   • 2009 Dec. 2, Mninawa Ntloko, "Parreira's Loyalty is to Brazil," 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.

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