Word.ws English Dictionary

drop a bombshell

drop a bombshell verb: to announce surprising or alarming information suddenly and without warning.

Verb

drop a bombshell (third-person singular simple present drops a bombshell, present participle dropping a bombshell, simple past and past participle dropped a bombshell)

  1. (idiomatic) To announce surprising or alarming information suddenly and without warning.
    • When the two men got together to discuss contract arrangements, the challenger dropped a bombshell.
      "If you lie down you can have the whole purse — $10,000," O'Brien told him.²³2000, Dan McCaffery, Tommy Burns: Canada's Unknown World Heavyweight Champion, page 135
    • John and Rick were knee-deep in pre-production when the client dropped a bombshell: Both of the tax services spots had been killed, but they still needed to air something in the same time frame.2002, Lisa Hickey, Design Secrets: Advertising: 50 Real-Life Projects Uncovered, page 64
    Synonyms:
    drop a bomb

Synonyms of drop a bombshell

Forms of drop a bombshell

third-person singular presentdrops a bombshell
present participledropping a bombshell
past participledropped a bombshell
pastdropped a bombshell

Questions about drop a bombshell

What does drop a bombshell mean?
Drop a bombshell means to announce surprising or alarming information suddenly and without warning.
What part of speech is drop a bombshell?
Drop a bombshell is a verb.
What is the past tense of drop a bombshell?
The past tense of drop a bombshell is dropped a bombshell.

Words near drop a bombshell in the dictionary

  1. drooth
  2. droozy
  3. drop
  4. drop a bollock
  5. drop a bomb
  6. drop a bombshell
  7. drop a brick
  8. drop a chalupa
  9. drop a clanger
  10. drop a deuce
  11. drop a dime

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drop a bombshell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-drop a bombshell.ogg.

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