Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A makeshift bomb made of a breakable container filled with flammable liquid and provided with a usually rag wick that is lighted just before being hurled.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A home-made incendiary device consisting of a bottle filled with gasoline, and a cloth wick. The wick is lighted, and the bottle thrown at a target, such as a vehicle, where it may shatter and spread intense flames over the vehicle, destroying or damaging it.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
simple incendiary bomb made from aglass bottle, filled with aninflammable liquid such aspetroleum , with arag for afuse that islit just before beinghurled . - noun obsolete A similar incendiary but made stoppered and containing
phosphorus dissolved inbenzene which would self-ignite when smashed and the contents exposed to air. Issued tocivilians in Britain duringWorld War II .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a crude incendiary bomb made of a bottle filled with flammable liquid and fitted with a rag wick
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Translation of Finnish Molotovin koktaili, after Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (so called because Finnish soldiers used such bombs against Soviet tanks during the 1939–1940 Soviet invasion of Finland, which began after Molotov announced Soviet demands for the annexation of certain Finnish territories ).]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Coined in Finland during the Winter War of 1939/40 between Finland and the Soviet Union, and named after then Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986). The Finns used Molotov cocktails against the Soviets.
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