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I saw in Grant's book on slang (The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English) the word "bomber" defined as a noun meaning: an old delapidated automobile.
I have also seen this word used as a common slang term in rock-climbing. There it is an adjective meaning "solid and secure beyond doubt." It is derived from the term "bomb-proof", itself a slang term usually applied to trees, boulders, etc that may be used for anchors for protective equipment. One might say: "There's a bomber tree at the top of this route that can be used for top-roping."
There's another slang meaning of "bomber" that I like: it's a tagger or graffiti artist, especially one who puts his mark all over a town or location. I first ran into this term around 1997 or so, in Greece. From the metro system (the tube, el, subway) I could see a great deal of graffiti. One of the messages leapt out at me: "A religion called bombing." I decided it was an antiwar message but years later when I started reading up on graffiti slang (learning terms like all-city and kinging) I realized it was a tagger professing a love for his art.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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