mail bomb

[ meyl bom ]

noun

1. letter bomb.
2. Also e·mail bomb []. a very large number of emails sent to a single email address or computer network, usually causing a server or system to crash.

verb (used with or without object)

1. Also mail-bomb. to send a mail bomb to (an email address or computer network).

Word History and Origins

Origin of mail bomb¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

He then murdered Gilbert Brent Murray, head of a California timber industry lobbying group, with a mail bomb in 1995.

From Reuters

As his bombs became more sophisticated, Kaczynski also killed New Jersey advertising executive Thomas Mosser, who had worked on improving the public image of oil major Exxon, with a mail bomb in 1994.

From Reuters

Vance — whose father-in-law, a federal judge, was murdered by a mail bomb in 1989 — said she empathized with the Arbery family.

From Washington Post

The fourth follows a family’s search for answers after a man is murdered by a mail bomb sent to his house.

From New York Times

I’ve had my share of unpleasant experiences with people who believed I was evil incarnate — everything from being burned in effigy for fighting for health-care reform, to claiming that I was running a pedophilia ring out of a pizza parlor, to receiving a mail bomb from a rabid Trump cult member.

From Washington Post