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1. A great noise; a hollow sound. A pillar of iron . . . Which if you had struck, would make . . . A great bomb in the chamber beneath. (Bacon)

2. A shell; especially. A spherical shell, like those fired from mortars. See shell.

3. A bomb ketch. Bomb chest, a small ketch or vessel, very strongly built, on which mortars are mounted to be used in naval bombardments; called also mortar vessel. Bomb lance, a lance or harpoon with an explosive head, used in whale fishing. Volcanic bomb, a mass of lava of a spherical or pear shape. I noticed volcanic bombs.

Origin: f. Bombe bombshell, fr. L. Bombus a humming or buzzing noise, gr.