drop a bombshell

To reveal something that is very surprising or unexpected. Whoa, you can't just drop a bombshell like that and leave—I need details about your new boyfriend! When we got a tip that the newspaper was about to drop a bombshell about our candidate, we all wondered what information they could possibly have. Mary dropped a bombshell on us all when she told us she was moving to France next week.

See also: bombshell, drop

drop a bombshell

Make an unexpected or shattering announcement. For example, Bill dropped a bombshell when he said he was quitting. This expression, which alludes to the destruction caused by a falling bomb, dates from World War I.

See also: bombshell, drop

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

drop a bombshell

COMMON If someone drops a bombshell, they suddenly announce a piece of bad news. Next day the bombshell was dropped on the front pages of the newspapers: the company had gone into voluntary liquidation. My ex-wife is on the phone and she drops a bombshell. Sue, our daughter, is leaving the country.

See also: bombshell, drop

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

drop a ˈbombshell

announce something which is unexpected and usually unpleasant: It was then that he dropped the bombshell — he wasn’t planning to come with us.

See also: bombshell, drop

drop a bombshell

verb

See drop a brick

See also: bombshell, drop

drop a bombshell, to

To announce sensational news. This metaphor dates from World War I and likens the devastation caused by falling bombs to the shock of suddenly receiving unexpected tidings. “The letters do not drop any historical bombshells,” wrote a Manchester Guardian reviewer in 1928. See also bolt from the blue.