suicide bomber
(SOO.uh.syd BAWM.ur)
n.
A person who deliberately kills himself or herself while detonating a bomb. —suicide bomb, noun. The bomb used by such a person. —suicide bombing, noun. The act of detonating such a bomb.
Example Citation:
In early August, 15 were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a Jerusalem pizzeria. On June 1, 22 were killed, many young people, when another suicide bomber exploded a device outside a Tel Aviv disco.
—Robert Nolin, "On a mission to learn," Sun-Sentinel, September 8, 2001
Earliest Citation:
A thunderous explosion destroyed the five-story Iraqi Embassy today, and as many as 20 people were reported killed. ... A Lebanese police spokesman first reported that a suicide bomber drove an explosives-filled car into the embassy compound past guards' machine-gun fire and detonated it near the building.
—Tom Baldwin, "International News," The Associated Press, December 15, 1981
Notes:
This phrase appeared on most of our language radars in 1983 after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden pickup truck into a building housing U.S. Marines at a Beirut, Lebanon airport. Interestingly, the earliest citation is from another Beirut-based explosion.
