carpet-bomb

[kahr-pit-bom]

verb (used with object)

1. to systematically bomb (a large target area) so as to completely destroy it.

Other Word Forms

• carpet-bombing noun
• carpet bombing noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of carpet-bomb¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

Rather than carpet-bomb cancer with chemotherapy and radiation, oncologists are deploying the pharmaceutical equivalent of drones and precision missiles.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

By the end of any given year, each of the company’s 1,100 cosmetic scientists will have worked on the development of 80 to 100 cosmetic products, allowing Cosmax and its domestic peers to, as Kang puts it, “carpet-bomb the global market with novel products.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

In the decades since the Democratic Party got its clock cleaned in the 1984 presidential election, it has gotten really good at one thing: finding candidates who are skilled fundraisers and using the money they raise to carpet-bomb small slices of undecided voters with poll-tested and focus-grouped ads that appeal to their vaguely moderate views on a handful of nationally resonant issues.

Read more on Slate

She won the primary over Rep. David Trone, a sensationally wealthy liquor magnate who had invested 60 million smackers into his campaign to carpet-bomb Maryland airwaves for months on end.

Read more on Slate

"They need to carpet-bomb on their patch and push new subjects that eclipse the pension reform."

Read more on Reuters