Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./US campus) to perform poorly, esp. in an examination.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS.
1985		J. Russo Complete Night of the Living Dead 78: You go into it with the intellectual point of view that you may bomb out.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 30: In college slang out is the most productive particle: [...] bomb out ‘fail, perform poorly’.
2004		T. Winton ‘Big World’ in Turning (2005) 5: For him, our bombing out is a huge joke.
2008		N. Roberts Tribute 301: Neither of us could know if he’d get luck or bomb out.

2. to fail a candidate or examinee.

1977

E. Bunker Animal Factory 39: From the scores he could see that he was in no danger of being bombed out.

3. to die, esp. from a drug overdose.

1981

W. Boyd ‘Not Yet, Jayette’ (in On the Yankee Station 1982) 21: She’s really grown fat in the years since my mother bombed out.

4. to get rid of, to terminate a relationship.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 72: That would probably mean bombing out Lizzie and ah’m addicted tae having sex wi her.
2002		O’Byrne Files: Dublin Sl. Dict. 🌐 Bombed out as adj. Jilted, given walking papers.

5. to become extremely intoxicated.

1999

Observer 5 Sept. 26: Bombing out on a mix of cheap wine [...] ‘pot and whizz’.

6. (US) to render someone intoxicated.

1992		R. Price Clockers 145: The twenty minutes of unconsciousness [...] during the drive to the office had completely bombed him out.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 144: They have just given me my nightly ‘bomb out pill’ and the white clouds are rolling in.

7. to have one dismissed or ejected.

2004

Mad mag. Feb. 4: I’m asking you to print the photograph that bombed me out of my Intro to Photography class.