Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) to dope a horse.

1948		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 13 Oct, 1/6: 'Nitro-glycerine is only one of a long list of chemicals, stimulants, and poisons, rated by the analyst as ingredients used to ‘bomb' or dope race horses.
1959		Baker Drum 92: Bomb v., to dope a racehorse.

2. (US) lit. or fig., to hit hard.

1960		J. Brosnan Long Season 33: ‘[I]f one of them [i.e. a pitcher] had a bad day,’ I wouldn’t be surprised if all four got bombed four days in a row’.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 108: Pitched against the Chicago White Sox today and got bombed. Three runs in an inning-and-a-third.
1973		W. Pastrano in Heller In This Corner (1974) 395: I never took so many punches [...] He bombed some bombs at me.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] recollection: ‘The day Kennedy got killed in Dallas was the day the screws bombed me at Grafton’.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 104: Cowboy threw a lightning-fast uppercut and bombed him right in his jaw.

3. to move, esp. to drive fast; usu. as bomb along, bomb down (the road), bomb into, to encounter, bomb off, bomb around, to rush around (aimlessly).

1914		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 14 May [synd. cartoon] You oughta see the chick [...] I bombed into them one night.
1964		in Current Sl. (1967) I:4 3/1: Bomb around, v. To move quickly from place to place.
1966		Current Sl. I:3 1/2: I’ll bomb over to the post office.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 84: Bomb out Leave a place.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 99: At weekends, they bombed up and down the coastline in their hotrods.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 114: There’s no traffic on the roads. You’ll bomb along, no messin’. [Ibid.] 157: His face went all white and he turned around and bombed off in his skunk lined slippers.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 22: The starter caught and Willie bombed the heap away.
1983		R. Price Breaks 263: Oh man, we’ll bomb around all weekend.
1989		(con. 1956) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 66: I’m bombing up Brookview to the church, thinking I’m going to be late.
1992		P. McCabe Butcher Boy (1993) 7: Yee ha! I said and bombed off out to the border shop.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 229: A green Jaguar [...] bombed down Brixton Hill.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 359: Her Mercedes was missing. She probably bombed out for her morning mocha.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 57: I can hear the fool long before I see him, bombing down kingsley Road and screeching right over the roundabout without slowing.

4. (US) to criticize harshly.

1946		J. Adams From Gags to Riches 278: Robert Sylvester atom-bombed a new show before it came to Broadway.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 261: ‘Go to your room and stay there!’ Flo bombs her ‘Until you learn to behave with good manners!’.
2001		Indep. Rev. 7 Mar. 1: Let’s give the poor old bombed and beleaguered BBC a break.

5. to work hard at something.

1973

C. Gaines Stay Hungry 104: Santo was ‘bombing’ now for the contest [...] attacking his body with heavy weights.

6. (US campus) to get very drunk.

1978		P. Hamill Dirty Laundry 97: Murray bombed himself with the mezcal.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

7. to write graffiti; thus bomber, bombing n.

1985		T.R. Houser Central Sl. 11: bombin’ The act of painting or wall writing. The wall writing itself. ‘Say, man, check out the bombin’.’.
2014		A. Fox-Lerner ‘Traces of a Name’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] I’d still [...] paint the occasional safe freight spot way far upstate [...] but I wasn't bombing the streets anymore.
2014		A. Fox-Lerner ‘Traces of a Name’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] [H]ardcore bomber types [...] who had to be living criminal lives just to keep up the graff habit [ibid.] He was a bomber, all about the quick and dirty, never stressing the aesthetics.

8. (orig. US black) to spray-paint a subway or railway car, a building or similar space with graffiti.

1982		C. Castleman Getting Up: Subway Graffiti In N.Y. 61: At first he painted only his name once or twice on each car he encountered, but then he started ‘bombing’ the trains, covering whole cars.
1994		Source May 64: Me and my man bombed Puerto Rico with cans.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 74: He joined a street writing crew, and bombed trains, buildings and bridges.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 161: The Flying Four go bombin’ down by the tracks but they go bunnin’ up by the canal.
2003		J. Lethem Fortress of Solitude 115: Dylan might have then been invited to [...] a transit yard or wherever else they were going in order to bomb some trains [...] And he had the El Marko in his backpack to bomb them with.
2003		Music from the Corner ‘Still Bombing’ 🎵 Let it go blood, and bomb the underground.

9. (drugs) to consume a drug, e.g. amphetamine.

2000

N. Griffiths Grits 43: Colm, beginnin tuh twitch as thuh speed ee bombed earlier takes effect.

10. (Irish) to do something to excess.

2021

L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 172: I couldn’t get my hands on any dope and drink just makes me lairy [...] I was bombing it.