blockbuster
[blok-buhs-ter]
- an aerial bomb containing high explosives and weighing from four to eight tons, used as a large-scale demolition bomb.
- a motion picture, novel, etc., especially one lavishly produced, that has or is expected to have wide popular appeal or financial success.
- something or someone that is forcefully or overwhelmingly impressive, effective, or influential: The campaign was a blockbuster.
- a real-estate speculator who practices blockbusting.
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Origin of blockbuster
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for blockbuster
Contemporary Examples
Not only, in the rarest of cases, where there a female lead in a blockbuster action movie, but the damsel in distress was a dude.
Team Peeta or Team Gale: Why the ‘Hunger Games’ Love Triangle Ruins ‘Mockingjay – Part 1’Kevin Fallon
November 28, 2014
Cast Angelina Jolie in that role with Brad Pitt as the cave hubbie, and maybe we have a blockbuster in the making.
As the creator of Roger Rabbit, he eventually partnered with Walt Disney Pictures for a blockbuster animation film.
And since Hollywood is all about blockbuster family entertainments now, about half of our nude content comes from television.
The Movie Nudity Maestro: Jim McBride on 15 Years of Mr. Skin and That Scarlett Johansson SceneMarlow Stern
August 9, 2014
Once, after the midnight premiere of a summer blockbuster, I got trapped on the top floor of a giant multiplex.
Historical Examples
Our own blockbuster should get there before they fire again.
The Secret of the Ninth PlanetDonald Allen Wollheim
We used to think that the B-17 was a huge plane, and the blockbuster it carried a huge load.
State of the Union Addresses of Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman
blockbuster
- a large bomb used to demolish extensive areas or strengthened targets
- a very successful, effective, or forceful person, thing, etc
- a lavish film, show, novel, etc, that proves to be an outstanding popular success
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for blockbuster
n.
also block-buster, big bomb (4,000 pounds or larger, according to some sources), 1942, from block (n.) in the "built-up city square" sense. Entertainment sense is attested from 1957. U.S. sense of "real estate broker who sells a house to a black family on an all-white neighborhood," thus sparking an exodus, is from 1955.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper