carpet bomb

present singular third person carpet bombs · participle present carpet bombing · participle past carpet bombed · past carpet bombed · alternative carpet-bomb

1. To bomb (an area) in such a manner that the ordnance covers the entire area without gaps.

   The infantry were destroyed after the enemy carpet bombed the ground they were occupying.

   3 more examples

   Russian bombers were carpet bombing the ridge directly above them, in a vain attempt to kill the Mujahideen fighters that plagued their operations on the ground.

   2008, Conrad Jones, Soft Target: Tank. II, page 237

   Vietnamese Air Force continued to carpet bomb any base areas that we found to be lucrative targets at the time.

   2010, Ken Welch, Tiger Hound: How We Won the War & Lost the Country, page 52

   Post World War II (WW II), terrorism against the people acquired a new dimension when America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and later carpet bombed Vietnam with Napalm.

   2015, Ram Puniyani, Deconstructing Terrorist Violence: Faith as a Mask

   Synonyms: blanket-bomb

plural carpet bombs · alternative carpet-bomb

1. A bomb used in a carpet bombing.

   This multiplicity of outlets work like carpet bombs that leave very little empty space for competition to be comfortable.

   2007, Services Marketing: Text And Cases

   2 more examples

   There was a whole new lexicon to learn: cluster bombs, fragmentation bombs, carpet bombs, napalm bombs, phosphorous bombs with their delicate spidery fingers stretching in all directions.

   2009, William Ayers, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Antiwar Activist

   What he really means is that the psychics' powers under test functioned more like a carpet bomb than a precision missile.

   2010, William Little, The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future

2. A bombing of this kind.

   They were probably afraid that we would bury them in another carpet bomb of expletives.

   2014, Jerald Ford, When I Am King, volume 2, page 290

   2 more examples

   This underground arena features switches that trigger lasers, and a carpet bomb of the entire lower and upper levels.

   2004, Keats Hanson, James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

   I watched in awe as the pans and glasses exploded halfway across the lawn, erupting from the tarp like a simulated war scenario where the plan of attack was a carpet bomb initiated from the sky.

   2007, Doug Green, No Wife No Kids No Plan