Dictionary

f-bomb en · NOUN

Etymology

From f (“abbreviation of fuck”) + bomb (“(euphemism marker)”), and thence other words beginning f. Likely based on the term H-bomb.

Meanings

1. (euphemistic, slang) The word fuck.
   • One could argue, of course, that most comedies about the risqué misadventures of teenagers are actually pretty wholesome. Horny hits like American Pie and last year's Blockers are, at heart, sweet coming-of-age stories, secretly reassuring everyone that the kids are all right—that no matter how many f-bombs they drop, no matter how raunchy their MPAA-antagonizing hijinks get, they're really just fumbling their inexperienced way through normal rites of passage. 2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021:
   • When he started out in 1981 Regan would throw in the odd F-bomb to spice up a joke, but eventually he just eliminated them from his act. 2007 May 10, Guy MacPherson, “Brian Regan’s clean comedy defuses the F-bomb”, in straight.com:
   • From hip-hop artists to bloggers to the vice president of the United States, everyone's dropping the F-bomb. 2006 June 25, Joel Achenbach, “Dropping the F-bomb”, in The Washington Post, page B01:
   • The Ontario government treaded similar territory with the rollout of its Flick Off campaign, intended to encourage young people to conserve energy by turning off lights and appliances, but obviously hinting at the f-bomb. 2007 May 18, Patrick White, “Dropping the f-bomb”, in The Globe and Mail:
2. (euphemistic, slang) The word funk.
3. (euphemistic, slang) The word faggot or fag.

Forms

Deriveds

cluster F-bomb · atomic F-bomb · drop the f-bomb

Relateds

n-bomb · c-bomb

Synonyms

f-word