smoke bomb

smoke bomb (plural smoke bombs)

1. A firework designed to produce smoke upon ignition.
   • 2013, Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers, New York: Scribner, 2014, Chapter 11, p. 56,

     It was the morning of the Fourth of July and kids were lighting smoke bombs, sulfurous coils of red and green, the colors dense and bright like concentrated dye blooming through water.

2. (military) An explosive or incendiary device designed to produce smoke in order to mark a position or produce a smokescreen.
   • 1916, Patrick MacGill, The Great Push: An Episode of the Great War, London: Herbert Jenkins, Chapter 3, p. 48,

     Smoke bombs would be used. The thick fumes resulting from their explosion between the lines would cover our advance.

   • 1918, Willis J. Abbot, Aircraft and Submarines: The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of War’s Newest Weapons, New York: Putnam, Chapter 9,

     Over every German battery would soar the observation plane indicating by tinsel or smoke bombs the location of the guns […]

   • 1935, Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains, Penguin, 1942, Chapter 13, p. 147,

     Margot would plant smoke-bombs in Kuno’s bedroom and then rush in to rescue him from the fumes.

   • 1953, Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 9,

     The agent gave them the two camera-cases you saw. […] He told them that the blue case contained a very powerful smoke-bomb. The red case was the explosive. As one of them threw the red case, the other was to press a switch on the blue case and they would escape under cover of the smoke.