flash-bangn.
/ˈflaʃbaŋ/, U.S. /ˈflæʃˌbæŋ/ 1. A flash of light accompanied or followed by a loud noise, esp. from a gun, bomb, etc.In early use not a fixed collocation.
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1868 Baily's Monthly Mag. Oct. 304 A single bird got up; and with a flash—bang! Muckle-mouthed Meg poured forth her deadly contents.
1916 A. G. Whyte World’s Wonder Stories (1920) x. 243 The big flash-bang of a thunderstorm.
1949 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 26 June a3/2 The unexpected flash-bang had only one explanation—a bomb.
2011 N. Holland Sleepless Nights viii. 116 Jinx yanked on the gun and a sudden flash-bang filled the taxi.
2. A grenade that produces a bright flash and a loud noise so as to stun or disorientate people without causing serious injury; a stun grenade. Cf. Compounds.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > [noun] > grenade
trombe1562
grenade1591
grenado1611
granata1637
hand grenade1637
bag-granado1638
shell1647
glass-grenade1664
globe1672
flask1769
petrol bomb1903
rifle grenade1909
hairbrush1916
Mills1916
pineapple bomb1916
stick grenade1917
fragmentation bomb1918
pineapple1918
potato-masher grenade1925
spitball1925
Molotov cocktail1940
sticky bomb1940
stick-bomb1941
red devila1944
stun grenade1977
flash-bang1982
1982 C. Dobson & R. Payne Terror! ii. 53 The best known of the gadgets is the ‘stun grenade’ or ‘flash-bang’ which detonates with a loud explosion and a flash of brilliant light to stun and blind the terrorists for some five to six seconds.
1992 D. F. Gates & D. K. Shah My Life in LAPD ix. 135 LAPD relies on ‘flash bangs’. Roll it in, makes a huge flash and a loud bang, like a firecracker. They are meant only to distract.
2021 USA Today (Nexis) 12 Mar. 6 d Police in riot gear swept through the square, firing flash bangs to move out the crowd.
Compounds
As a modifier, designating a grenade that produces a bright flash and a loud noise so as to stun or disorientate people without causing serious injury, as in flash-bang device, flash-bang grenade, etc.Cf. slightly earlier flash and bang modifying grenade, in the same sense, in quot. 1979.
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1979 C. Dobson & R. Payne Terrorists viii. 145 The new force, to be called Blue Light—which recalls the flash and bang grenades used at Mogadishu—will have special weapons and equipment.]
1981 J. Gardner Licence Renewed xiii. 156 From directly in front of the Saab came a massive flash and boom—like a huge version of the SAS ‘flash-bang’ stun grenade.
1986 Daily Rev. (Towanda, Pa.) 25 June 2/3 He apparently was burned by two ‘flash-bang’ grenades detonated to distract him as he tried to escape.
2005 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 16 Oct. (Herald-Times ed.) d3/4 Officers wearing gas masks fired tear gas canisters and flash-bang devices designed to stun suspects.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1868