car bomb

American  

noun

1. a bomb placed in a vehicle and wired to explode when the ignition is started, by remote control, or by a timing device.

2. a vehicle containing explosives detonated by remote control or a timing device.

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Etymology

Origin of car bomb

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Iranian media have been sharing a picture of him with Imad Mughniyeh, the number two in Hezbollah's leadership who was assassinated in a car bomb in 2008.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2024

His death was the most high-profile attack on a prominent war supporter inside Russia since August, when a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin’s.

From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2023

You wrote a book about the history of the car bomb, “Buda’s Wagon.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2022

Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman attends a trial during sentence of a 1992 Shining Path car bomb case in Miraflores, at a high security naval prison in Callao, Peru September 11, 2018.

From Reuters • Sep. 11, 2021

Surprisingly few false reports slipped through in those early hours, most prominently that a car bomb had exploded at the State Department in Washington.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 3, 2021