bazooka
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bazooka
An Americanism dating back to 1930–35; from its resemblance to a musical instrument so named, invented and played by comedian Bob Burns in the 1930s and 1940s
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He may also enjoy showing off his new tariff bazooka.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The bazooka was designed as a deterrent—and it seems to have deterred.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026
Referred to as a "bazooka" or "nuclear" option, the instrument is intended to deter economic coercion against any of the EU's 27 member states.
From Barron's ● Jan. 19, 2026
And when Brooks and Gordon’s screenplay takes a bazooka to that skeleton, they smartly ensure the viewer is on Iris’ side.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2025
He just wished the pockets were large enough for a chain saw, or maybe a bazooka.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
It is one thing to give Ukraine short-range anti-tank bazookas.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2022
The elated health minister, Mutahi Kagwe, said that the country had “been fighting this virus with rubber bullets,” but now had finally acquired the metaphorical equivalent of “machine guns, bazookas, and tanks.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2021
“We have been fighting the pandemic with rubber bullets but what we have acquired today is equivalent, metaphorically speaking, to bazookas and machine guns,” Kenyan Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 3, 2021
“I didn’t ask for bazookas, tanks and flamethrowers,” he said.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 26, 2018
A retired police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, told The New York Times, “I was offered tanks, bazookas, anything I wanted.”
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
