blockbuster

[blok-buhs-ter]

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noun

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.

Origin of blockbuster

First recorded in 1940–45; block + buster

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for blockbuster

blockbuster

Examples from the Web for blockbuster

Contemporary Examples of blockbuster

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.
Can Tarzan of the Apes Survive in a Post-Colonial World?
Ted Gioia
November 23, 2014
As the creator of Roger Rabbit, he eventually partnered with Walt Disney Pictures for a blockbuster animation film.
They Saw Our Sports Problem Coming
T.D. Thornton
September 14, 2014
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 Scene
Marlow Stern
August 9, 2014
Once, after the midnight premiere of a summer blockbuster, I got trapped on the top floor of a giant multiplex.
The War Inside: Terrorism & Teenhood in ‘No Dawn Without Darkness’
Hugh Ryan
August 3, 2014

Historical Examples of blockbuster

Our own blockbuster should get there before they fire again.
The Secret of the Ninth Planet
Donald 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. Truman
Harry S. Truman

British Dictionary definitions for blockbuster

blockbuster

noun informal

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

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

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.