Definition of barrel bomb in English:

barrel bomb


  • A crude bomb consisting of an oil drum or similar container filled with explosives, typically dropped from an aircraft.

    ‘he estimated that dozens of barrel bombs had been dropped on the province in the last nine days’
    • ‘He accused the government of committing "yet another war crime" by spraying civilian areas with barrel bombs.’
    • ‘The rebels rolled the barrel bombs through sewers until they were underneath the main guard post at the base.’
    • ‘The attackers used "barrel bombs" - metal tubs filled with TNT, nails and other shreds of metal - which, when dropped from helicopters, have a devastating blast range.’
    • ‘This shows the aftermath of what activists call a barrel bomb having been dropped on a residential street in that district.’
    • ‘Last week there were daily bombardments, including an attack by a helicopter that dropped barrel bombs.’
    • ‘An activist said fighting had ceased, but that the air force had continued to drop barrel bombs on the town.’
    • ‘The primary weapon is the Antonov bomber: retrofitted Russian cargo planes that are notoriously inaccurate and carry huge loads of shrapnel-packed barrel bombs.’
    • ‘The dastardly arsenal ranges from missiles, flares and flamethrowers to mines, barrel bombs and chaos-causing oil slicks.’
    • ‘A total of 11 barrel bombs were assembled and detonated leaving behind an enormous hole in the ground.’


[with object]
  • Drop a barrel bomb or bombs on.

    ‘another of the makeshift medical centres was barrel-bombed on June 23rd’
    • ‘Seven decades of education and monument building in the West did not lift a finger for the dead, gassed and barrel-bombed in their streets.’
    • ‘Guerrilla groups competed for popularity among urban populations being barrel-bombed by the regime.’
    • ‘He was killed by the government's barrel-bombing of the city, as were several children he had just vaccinated.’
    • ‘Unfortunately, the barrel-bombing only stopped for less than 48 hours.’
    • ‘These accusations have been appearing for some time on the Internet and have gained strength since repeated barrel-bombing of civilians.’
    • ‘An elderly women yelled after her neighborhood was barrel-bombed by government warplanes, "They have destroyed our homes and killed our children."’
    • ‘We were seeing on television people being barrel-bombed, starved and killed.’
    • ‘Elsewhere the government has kept up its barrel-bombing campaign regardless of whether civilians are present or not.’
    • ‘The water shortage was a combination of Government barrel-bombing of the electricity generating station and the regime's slowness in repairing a breakdown at the pumping station.’