Molotov

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A crude homemade firebomb consisting of a glass bottle filled with flammable liquid and a wick, thrown to start fires ; to attack or set alight a target by hurling such a device
2. An improvised incendiary device built from a bottle of petrol with a fuse, used as a thrown weapon ; to assault or burn something by throwing one of these bottles
3. A makeshift firebomb made by stuffing a bottle with inflammable fluid and a lit rag ; to hit or torch a place by lobbing these homemade bombs at it

Etymology: The name belongs to Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, whose surname is a transliteration of the Russian Мо́лотов, a word connected to the Russian for "hammer." The weapon was named as a jab at him. During the Winter War of 1939–1940, when Soviet forces invaded Finland, Molotov claimed that Soviet aircraft were dropping food rather than bombs on Finnish cities. Finnish troops answered with incendiary bottles, and they called the Soviet bombs "Molotov's bread baskets," a sardonic label that inspired the name of the homemade firebomb. From that joke, the phrase "Molotov cocktail" came into use, and the shortened form "molotov" later became a verb meaning to attack someone or something with such a bomb. Here the noun came first and the verb was made from it by dropping the rest of the phrase, so the verb is simply the name of the weapon used as an action.

Synonyms: firebomb, incendiary bomb, petrol bomb