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.

---

Etymology

Origin of car bomb

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

A Russian pro-war writer who was seriously injured in a car bomb on Saturday is out of a medically induced coma, his spokeswoman says.

From BBC • May 7, 2023

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

The EU prize, known as the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism, is named after a Maltese investigative reporter who was killed by a car bomb four years ago.

From Reuters • Oct. 14, 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